Found: Letter from Lord Markham, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for the Lords), Department

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Ministers attended the Great Futures conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 14 and 15 May 2024.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

5 UK Ministers attended the conference.

The GREAT FUTURES launch event in Riyadh on 14-15 May 2024 is the flagship moment that kickstarts a year-long programme bringing to life the sheer scale of opportunities for UK businesses in Saudi Arabia linked to Vision 2030. The purpose is to forge partnerships across a number of sectors by gathering together some of the UK's most creative and innovative companies with their Saudi counterparts.

The Deputy Prime Minister led a strong Ministerial delegation comprising Kemi Badenoch, Secretary of State for Business and Trade; Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary; Lord Johnson, Minister for Investment; Lord Markham, Minister of Health; and Sir Steve Smith the PM’s Special Representative for Higher Education. The delegation of more than 450 UK companies made this the largest trade delegation the UK has sent anywhere for a decade.

Some 50+ agreements and MOUs were signed during the two days. The Deputy Prime Minister and Saudi Minister of Commerce convened a Pillar 1 meeting of the UK-Saudi Strategic Partnership where they agreed the ambition of increasing bilateral trade from £17bn to £30 billion by 2030.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 15 May (HL4224), how they reconcile the answer with that given by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 23 November 2023 (HC527), which precluded the ability of a medical practitioner to form a "good faith" opinion through a telemedicine consultation alone that the patient's gestation was below 10 weeks, and therefore to dispense early medical abortion pills for use by the patient at home.

Answered by Lord Markham

The response of 23 November 2023 does not preclude the ability of a medical practitioner to form a good faith opinion, through a telemedicine consultation alone, that the patient's gestation was below 10 weeks. This opinion can be formed either during a teleconsultation, or an in-person appointment.

Pregnancy duration can be assessed from the first day of the last menstrual period (LMP). Advice from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is clear that most women can determine the duration of their pregnancy with reasonable accuracy by LMP alone.

However, if there is any uncertainty about the gestation of the pregnancy, the medical practitioner would ask the woman to attend an in-person appointment to enable them to form an opinion that the pregnancy will not have exceeded 10 weeks at the time the first abortion pill is taken. If she does not attend in-person when requested, the terminating practitioner would not be able to form an opinion in good faith that the pregnancy is below 10 weeks gestation, and therefore would not be able to prescribe abortion pills for home use.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 9 May (HL4286), whether they have issued guidance to telemedicine providers about complying with the prohibition of termination of pregnancy at gestations over 10 weeks outside a National Health Service facility or an approved place; and if not, why.

Answered by Lord Markham

No specific guidance has been issued, however, all abortion providers are aware that termination of pregnancy in England and Wales can only be provided within the legal framework laid down in the Abortion Act 1967.

The legal framework for home use of early medical abortion pills is set out in the Department’s guidance, Abortion: procedures for the approval of independent sector places for termination of pregnancy (abortion) in England. This guidance applies to independent sector abortion clinics and states that the Abortion Act 1967 allows women having an abortion during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, specifically up to nine weeks and six days gestation, to take one or both medicines for an early medical abortion at home. It also highlights that women having an early medical abortion at home should be given information on the implications, health and otherwise, of taking the abortion medicine beyond the legal limit of nine weeks and six days gestation.

In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline on abortion care, to which all abortion providers are expected to have due regard, highlights that women who are having a medical abortion and will be taking the first pill, mifepristone, up to and including nine weeks six days gestation, can be offered the option of expulsion at home.

Found: the Minister for Investment, Lord Johnson, and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health, Lord