Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Maria Caulfield and Tim Loughton

Tuesday 11th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

19. If he will publish the results of the consultation on giving powers to coroners to investigate stillbirths.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maria Caulfield)]

The consultation on giving powers to coroners to investigate stillbirths received 334 responses, including from bereaved parents, charities, the Chief Coroner, clinicians and a range of other organisations.

[Tim Loughton]

Mr Speaker, you are very familiar with the problems over the implementation of my Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc) Act 2019, which passed this House in February 2019. Section 4 remains incomplete. The consultation was completed in June 2019. Mr Speaker, you are aware that I made six attempts to get a meeting with the Minister and a Justice Minister. Eventually, I got it in March, after the Leader of the House intervened. Four months on, I have heard nothing and the consultation remains unpublished. What will it take to get this legislation, which everyone wants and which was passed unanimously, into law?

[Maria Caulfield]

I thank my hon. Friend for his work in this space and I apologise for the delay in publishing the consultation. I met him along with a Justice Minister, and I assure him that we hope to publish it very soon.