Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether Monitor plans to create a new maternity tariff for multiple pregnancies which more closely meets the costs associated with delivering the best practice care pathways outlined by NICE and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; and if he will make a statement.

Monitor and NHS England are working with providers on a bottom-up costing exercise for maternity services.Returns are due in mid-November and analysis over the following couple of months will help to ensure that the tariffs are improved to more closely reflect the costs of service delivery. This will help inform prices for 2017/18.