Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the proportion of mothers who (a) breastfeed, (b) use formula and (c) use both for infants in the first six weeks of life.

The Department collects, holds, and publishes numbers and rates of babies fully breastfed, partially breastfed, and not at all breastfed, at six to eight weeks of age. It can be assumed that babies partially breastfed and not at all breastfed are receiving formula milk for at least part of their diet. The data is provided to the Department by local authorities.

The Department publishes the data quarterly and annually, for England, by region, and by upper tier local authority. The latest annual data is for the financial year 2023/24, and the latest quarterly data is for the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.

In the financial year 2023/24, 52.7% of babies were breastfed or partially breastfed in England. This proportion has been improving since the financial year 2020/21 when it was 47.6%.

In addition, the Department publishes data on the numbers and rates of babies receiving breastmilk as their first feed. This is published annually for England, by region, and by upper tier local authority. This data is collected by NHS England in the Maternity Services Data Set.

The latest data is for the financial year 2023/24 when 71.9% of babies received breastmilk as their first feed. The proportion of babies whose first feed was breast milk has remained at approximately 72% each year between 2019 and 2024.