Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on discussions with the UK Government in relation to The Hughes Report.
Dr Henrietta Hughes published her report, which was about financial and non-financial redress for persons affected by transvaginal mesh or the medicine sodium valproate, on 7 February 2024. The report was commissioned by the previous UK Government, but the present UK Government has undertaken to consider and respond to it. Regrettably, it has not yet responded.
Dr Hughes is the Patient Safety Commissioner for England and her report and recommendations were concerned in the first place with affected persons in England, but both Dr Hughes and the UK Government have acknowledged that people across the UK have been affected, and also that issues relevant to the report, notably the regulation of medicines and medical devices, concern UK-wide responsibilities of the UK Government.
Since the publication of the Hughes Report the Scottish Government has been working closely with the other Devolved Governments to seek a response from the UK Government. Scottish Government Ministers wrote to Ministers of the present UK Government about the report in October 2024, in February 2025 and again in July 2025, to seek meetings and assurances that the Devolved Governments would be consulted about any potential UK Government response. Ministers from the other Devolved Governments wrote in similar terms, also on a number of occasions.
A meeting between the four UK Health Ministers was finally agreed to in December 2025, and took place last month. Despite this meeting, it remains the case that the UK Government has made no substantial proposals about how it might respond to the recommendations concerned with financial redress; nor so far has it stated a date by which it might seek to publish a response.
Whilst the UK Government published a spending review on 11 June 2025 setting out plans from financial year 2026-27 to the end of 2028-29, there was no specific provision to respond to the Hughes Report.
The second anniversary of the Hughes Report’s publication approaches and anyone affected will have wholly reasonable expectations that the UK Government would have responded to the report by now, and in a substantial way. I consider it unreasonable and unfair that they have had to wait for two years and possibly now for even longer.
I therefore wish to note in particular that, to date, the Scottish Government has received no proposals from the UK Government for any schemes of financial redress that would constitute a substantial implementation of the recommendations made by Dr Hughes. We stand ready to consider any proposals from the UK Government, but we do not consider we are able to make proposals independently of them.
I appreciate that this information will be disappointing for those affected, but I wish to assure the Parliament that I will continue to push for a resolution.
Both the Scottish Government and the NHS in Scotland will continue to offer help and assistance to women affected by transvaginal mesh and people affected by sodium valproate. We will continue to offer mesh removal surgery, both in the NHS and with independent sector surgeons, if that is what patients prefer. We also continue to explore how support for people harmed by valproate might be organised in Scotland. Public Health Scotland has established a National Medicines in Pregnancy ‘surveillance asset’ focussed on anti-seizure medicines, including valproate, that are known or suspected to have potential to increase the risk of birth defects and development disorders when taken during pregnancy.
The Scottish Government appreciates that there is interest in these issues and support for people affected among members in all the parties represented in the Parliament. We will continue to keep Members informed about significant developments.