Patient Safety Commissioner to approach Number 10 directly over redress delays (2 February 2026)

Summary

The Patient Safety Commissioner for England, Professor Henrietta Hughes, has announced she will approach Number 10 directly to secure financial redress for those harmed by pelvic mesh and the medicine valproate, following a Government update that provides no timetable for decisions on financial compensation. The announcement comes nearly two years after the publication of the Hughes Report in February 2024, which examined options for redress for patients and families affected by these interventions. The report followed earlier advice provided to the Department of Health and Social Care in October 2023.

Content

In October 2025, Professor Hughes wrote to Dr Zubir Ahmed MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Innovation and Safety, using her powers under Schedule 1, paragraph 3 of the 2021 Medicines and Medical Devices Act. This legislation authorises the Patient Safety Commissioner to access information, documents or records considered necessary for the exercise of her functions. Professor Hughes sought information about the steps that had been taken by Ministers and officials to respond to her report and its ten recommendations on redress. She subsequently received two responses to this:

• Letter from Dr Zubir Ahmed MP, dated 28 November 2025
• Letter from Dr Zubir Ahmed MP, dated 30 January 2026

Commenting on this on the 2nd February 2026, the Patient Safety Commissioner issued the following statement:

“I welcome Minister Ahmed’s acknowledgement that financial redress is part of the Government’s thinking. However, acknowledgement alone does not provide justice to the thousands of patients and families who have been harmed.

What is starkly absent from this update is any commitment to a timetable for action. Nearly two years after publishing my report, patients are still waiting for action and financial redress. Patients’ lives don’t grind to a halt while Government departments debate jurisdiction and timelines. 

I am grateful for the Minister’s personal commitment and the progress on non-financial aspects. But the reality remains that the Department of Health and Social Care does not have the agency to deliver financial compensation. That authority sits with the Treasury and Number 10. 

I will now be approaching Number 10 directly, using the power to request information under the 2021 Medicines and Medical Devices Act if required. This is very much unfinished business and I will not stop holding Government to account until this is resolved for the patients and families harmed.”

Related reading

• First Do No Harm. The report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (8 July 2020)
• The Hughes Report: Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh (Patient Safety Commissioner for England, 7 February 2024)
• A year on from The Hughes Report: Urgent action needed on redress (Patient Safety Learning, 7 February 2025)