Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that a commitment to reducing inequalities in (a) pregnancy loss and (b) baby deaths is included in the next Three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services.

The Government is committed to tackling and reducing disparities in health outcomes, and works closely with NHS England to improve equity for mothers and babies, and race equality for staff. A central ambition of the National Health Services’ three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services is to reduce inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes for women and babies. This plan is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/three-year-delivery-plan-for-maternity-and-neonatal-services/

There are no current plans to revise the three-year plan, and NHS England are focused on delivering the existing commitments, including those relating to inequalities in still birth and neonatal death.