Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review report First Do No Harm, published on 8 July 2020, what discussions they have had regarding the provision of monetary compensation for people adversely affected by clinical and surgical pelvic mesh.

The Government has asked the Patient Safety Commissioner, Dr Henrietta Hughes, to undertake work looking at redress for people harmed by pelvic mesh and sodium valproate. The work is intended to focus on the views of those affected, improving the understanding of how many people have been affected and how, the case for redress and what form it could take.

The Patient Safety Commissioner office has stated that the report setting out the findings from this work is expected to be published on 7 February this year. The Government will consider the report’s findings before deciding how to proceed on this matter.

The Government published its response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety review in July 2021, which did not accept the recommendation to establish a redress agency, this position remains unchanged.