Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the number of trusts where maternity services have had culturally sensitive training on racism and discrimination on Black women’s experiences and engagement with maternity care.

We are rolling out an anti-discrimination programme to all trusts by the end of this year, to be completed by the end of 2027, which will equip leaders and frontline staff to use tried and tested approaches to tackle discriminatory practices. A robust, independent evaluation of this programme has been commissioned and is being undertaken.

This is part of a broader set of actions to tackle the root causes of racism and discrimination. We have also established an inequalities dashboard, to identify areas where specific populations face the greatest disparities, enabling tailored interventions and more equitable support.