Oral Answers to Questions

Peter Heaton-Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 5th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am more than happy to do so. In fact, we have a copy of the report right here, which my Minister of State has handily given to me. When I was shadow Minister for disabled people, I had a lot of contact with parents of autistic children and with people on the autistic spectrum themselves. The hon. Gentleman makes a very important point.

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

The maternity unit at North Devon district hospital in Barnstaple in my constituency is one of the services being reviewed under the current Success Regime. Can the Secretary of State reassure me and my constituents that maternity care, and the safety thereof in what is a geographically huge region, will be the first priority under this review?

[Mr Hunt]

I can absolutely assure my hon. Friend on that. I know there are very big national and global events happening right now, but I want to tell the House that over the next month one of my big priorities will be to do something to improve our record on maternity safety. We have made huge progress in reducing stillbirth rates and so on, but maternity safety is still not as good as it should be and certainly not as good as in other countries in western Europe. This is an absolute priority and I hope to be able to inform the House more on this before recess.