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Thalidomide Trust: Finance

Volume 487: debated on Monday 2 February 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what financial assistance his Department has provided to the Thalidomide Trust since May 1997. (252872)

The Department has not provided financial support to the Thalidomide Trust. Responsibility for providing compensation to victims rests with Messrs. Distillers, now part of Diageo plc, the company that marketed the drug in the United Kingdom. A private compensation settlement was agreed with Distillers in 1973, and Diageo continues to make annual payments to the Thalidomide Trust, the charitable trust established to administer payments to victims.