Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to respond to the recommendations of the report by the Patient Safety Commissioner entitled The Hughes report, published on 7 February 2024.

The Government will consider the recommendations of The Hughes Report and the relevant Minister is due to meet with the Patient Safety Commissioner this week.

To prevent future harm, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England, and others have taken action to strengthen oversight of valproate prescribing. For example, nine specialist mesh centres are in operation across England, ensuring that women with complications of mesh inserted for urinary incontinence and vaginal prolapse get the right support in every region, and we have maintained the national pause on the use of pelvic mesh, which has been in place since July 2018.