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 effect of the covid-19 lockdown on the birth rate; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that there is adequate provision to respond to a potential increase in the birth rate as a result of the covid-19 lockdown.

We do not yet know what impact the COVID-19 lockdown might have on the birth rate in England.

The National Health Service is making arrangements to ensure that women are supported and cared for safely through pregnancy, birth and the period afterwards, during and following this pandemic, when there will be extra pressures on healthcare services. We expect any changes to the configuration of maternity services to be temporary.

NHS England and NHS Improvement’s ‘Clinical guide for the temporary reorganisation of intrapartum maternity care during the coronavirus pandemic’ states that recovery plans are essential and should bear in mind the regional modelling of how the virus is likely to spread.