House of Commons Debate – Hughes Report: Second Anniversary (11 February 2026)

Summary

This is a brief summary of a Westminster Hall debate in the House of Commons on the 11 February 2026 concerning the second anniversary of The Hughes Report on valproate and pelvic mesh.

Content

What is a Westminster Hall Debate

Westminster Hall debates give Members of Parliament (MPs) an opportunity to raise local or national issues and receive a response from a government minister. Any MP can take part in a Westminster Hall debate.

The Hughes Report

The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, published in July 2020, highlighted the scale of avoidable harm related to three medical interventions: hormone pregnancy tests, sodium valproate and pelvic mesh implants. One of the Review’s key recommendations was that separate redress schemes should be established for patients adversely affected by these interventions.

Published on the 7 February 2024, the Patient Safety Commissioner for England set out options for redress for two of these interventions, pelvic mesh and sodium valproate in The Hughes Report. It recommends the government creates a two-stage financial redress scheme – an interim scheme to enable the identification of all those harmed ensuring patients receive financial redress quickly – and a main scheme.

You can find Patient Safety Learning’s reflections on the first anniversary of this report’s publication here.

House of Commons debate

In the discussion MPs highlighted individual cases from their constituents relating to pelvic mesh and sodium valproate and also discussed:

• Two years on from its publication, the Government have still not published an official response to the Hughes report. No redress scheme has been implemented and no timeline has been announced.
• It was suggested that a compensation scheme as recommended by The Hughes report would save the excessive costs of litigation that the NHS would have to pay out—money that could then be used for the treatment of patients.
• Although the Patient Safety Commissioner’s remit extends to England only, this is a UK-wide issue. The report said that the Department of Health and Social Care should engage with the devolved governments on where and how the two-stage redress approach should apply across the UK.
• The Northern Ireland Department of Health has stated that its approach will be informed by the final position of the UK Government, but their final position has not been determined.

Responding on behalf of the Government to this debate was Karin Smyth MP, the Minster for Secondary Care. She noted that:

• The Government remains committed to working alongside the Patient Safety Commissioner for England and her team to better support patients and ensure that steps are taken to prevent similar harm in the future, both in this area and across the wider patient safety landscape.
• The Government have to consider options for financial redress collectively, with input from a number of Departments.
• The Government are committed to setting out our response at the earliest credible opportunity while ensuring that it is both robust and deliverable.