Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to introduce a target for the NHS to end the disparity in maternal morality between Black women and white women.

Work to reduce health inequalities around maternal mortality rates is being led by Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent OBE, the Chief Midwifery Officer. This includes understanding why mortality rates are higher, considering evidence about what will reduce mortality rates and taking action.

We have established the inequalities oversight forum, with a group of clinical experts, to understand the reasons why the death rate for black women in childbirth is five times higher than for white women and to find out what we can put in place to ensure that, by addressing those issues, we reduce the number of deaths.