Catalogue description Thalidomide 'Y' List Inquiry (Marre Inquiry): Records

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Details of BN 90
Reference: BN 90
Title: Thalidomide 'Y' List Inquiry (Marre Inquiry): Records
Description:

Records of the Thalidomide 'Y' List Inquiry relating to the award of compensation for children disabled after their mothers took thalidomide while pregnant.

The series includes interviews with families and individuals and drafts of the report.
Date: 1978
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Thalidomide Y List Inquiry, 1978-1978
Physical description: 4 file(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

in 2001 Department of Health
Custodial history: Transferred to the Department of Health in 1988.
Accumulation dates: File series began in 1978
Selection and destruction information: Duplicates and press cuttings have been destroyed.
Accruals: Series is not accruing.
Administrative / biographical background:

In March 1978, with the agreement of Distillers Company (manufacturers of Thalidomide), the Minister for the Disabled appointed Sir Alan Marre to consider what further steps the Company should take in relation to any outstanding 'Y' List cases.

Thalidomide was marketed by Distillers in the UK from April 1958 to November 1961. In 1968, a settlement had been made for 61 children; a later settlement of 1973 provided compensation for another 338 children on the so-called 'X' List, which comprised those children whom Distillers accepted as children malformed because their mothers had taken a thalidomide preparation of their manufacture.

The 'Y' List originally comprised 97 children who had notified claims but had not been accepted by Distillers as thalidomide children at the time of the 1973 settlement. By the time of the commencement of the inquiry, 19 of these children had been accepted as thalidomide children, and a further three were so accepted while the inquiry was proceeding.

The inquiry's Report was produced in July 1978.

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