Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies of the journal article entitled, A Quality Improvement Bundle to Improve Outcomes in Extremely Preterm Infants in the First Week, published in February 2022 in the context of assessing practices on the care of premature infants.

No specific assessment has been made. The National Maternity Safety Ambition is to halve maternal and neonatal deaths, stillbirths and brain injuries by 2025. It also includes reducing the rate of pre-term births from 8% to 6%. We have introduced specific targeted interventions to achieve this ambition, such as the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle Version 2 and the Brain Injury Reduction Programme.

The Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle Version 2 brings together five elements of care that are widely recognised as evidence-based and best practice. One element focuses on reducing preterm birth and includes three interventions to improve the prediction and prevention of pre-term birth and better preparation when pre-term birth is unavoidable.