Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the 1,500 maternity safety recommendations made to maternity units in England by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch in 2020-21 his Department has assessed as having been implemented in full.

Responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch’s (HSIB) national patient safety recommendations rest with the recipient organisations. The National Patient Safety Committee, coordinated by NHS England and NHS Improvement, has established a pilot to examine how the implementation of all the HSIB’s national recommendations could be monitored, the potential resources required and information that may aid future evaluation. The National Patient Safety Committee’s draft report on the pilot is currently undergoing review and is expected to be finalised this year.

Responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the maternity safety recommendations made by the HSIB rests with individual National Health Service trusts. The HSIB works closely with trusts on addressing emerging themes from the investigations and has quarterly review meetings where trusts provide feedback on the actions being taken to implement the recommendations. The HSIB will raise any immediate concerns to the Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement via governance and assurance meetings.