Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement of 11 January 2021, HCWS692, Update on the Government’s response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, whether he plans to support a redress scheme for the families affected by sodium valproate.

The Government published its response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review on 21^st July 2021. In this response the Government did not accept the recommendation to establish separate redress schemes for the three interventions discussed in the report, including sodium valproate. Our primary focus is on improving future medicines and medical devices safety and it is therefore crucial that we focus Government funds on initiatives that directly improve future safety (including specialist mesh centres and support for families affected by medicines in pregnancy). For this reason, redress schemes will not be established in response to the recommendation in the report.