Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the number of additional midwives that would be required to enable all women to receive one-to-one care from a midwife during labour.

Health Education England has responsibility for commissioning training for the National Health Service workforce and for working with NHS organisations to ensuretheright numbersof midwives are available to deliver the recommendations of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, published 27 February 2015, which includes the need for every woman to have at least one registered midwife present during established labour.