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Thalidomide Survivors

I thank the hon. Gentleman for the way in which he has responded to the statement. He raised two points: the timing of the statement, and the source of the funding. We had hoped to make a statement before the Christmas recess—and I had told the NAC that I would try to make the news public so that, if possible, thalidomiders would know about it before Christmas. Unfortunately, due to some internal issues in respect of funding and some legal issues that we wanted to resolve, we were not able to make certain final decisions until after the recess had commenced, but because I had made the commitment that we would try to get the message out before Christmas, I issued a press statement on 23 December so that thalidomiders were made aware that the £20 million will be available and that that has been confirmed. However, I wanted to make the statement of regret to the House, and that has now been done. The £20 million in funding will be paid up front, before the end of the financial year, to the Thalidomide Trust as a lump sum. That was requested by the NAC in its negotiations, and we were able to agree to it. The money comes from the contingency central funds that are held by the Department, and therefore no funding will be diverted from other sources in order to meet this.