Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether hospitals are compelled to accept and act on Health Service Investigation Branch recommendations that result from the investigation of avoidable baby deaths.

In November 2017, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced that, from April 2018, the Health Service Investigation Branch (HSIB) would investigate each case of early neonatal death, term intrapartum stillbirth and severe brain injury in babies, as well as each case of maternal death in England. This remit and the definition of qualifying maternity cases was set out in the Secretary of State’s directions, NHS Trust Development Authority (HSIB Maternity Investigations) Directions 2018, published on 26 April 2018.

The new investigative approach began in a single region in April 2018 and will roll out to all areas of England during 2018/19. Rollout will be complete by the end of March 2019. It is estimated that there are approximately 1,000 cases of birth-related deaths or serious brain injuries in babies in England every year. The expectation is that the learning from investigations will spur system improvements leading to fewer deaths and injuries in the future.

The HSIB has been allocated £8 million of additional funding to implement the new maternity investigation programme in 2018/19.

The HSIB will produce an investigation report for each maternity investigation it undertakes and will make recommendations to the relevant National Health Service trust or foundation trust.

It will be for individual trusts to put into place actions to address the recommendations of individual reports and ensure that the learning from HSIB investigations is put into practice so that avoidable harms are reduced. The Care Quality Commission, which monitors, inspects and regulates NHS providers does, in carrying out its functions, take into account a variety of data and intelligence sources. The HSIB maternity investigation recommendations and the actions NHS trusts and foundation trusts have taken in response could form part of these data sources and be taken into account where relevant.