Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the article in the Guardian of 13 November 2018 entitled Female prisoners in England left to give birth without midwife, what steps he is taking to ensure midwifery care is provided to perinatal women in custody.

All pregnant women in custody have an individual care and management plan that is communicated to all staff and all pregnant women are seen by a mid-wife at least fortnightly or as required. Healthcare in prisons is provided by trained medics and nurses, but we have also made training on dealing with pregnant women available to all prison officers and new guidance will make clear that pregnant women should have access to 24-hour midwifery advice.

We know it is extremely rare for a woman to give birth in prison - because every step is taken to get them to hospital - but those unique cases are invariably down to the unpredictability of labour.

Our new Female Offenders Strategy made clear that we want fewer women serving short sentences in custody and more remaining in the community, making use of women’s centres to address needs such as substance misuse and mental health problems.