Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the extent of shortages in (a) midwives and (b) obstetricians in the NHS in England.

The recent Birthrate Plus assessment identified a national differential in England of 844 full-time equivalent (FTE) or 3.5% of midwives between employed FTE staff in post and the total number of funded posts and 1,088 FTE or 4.4% of midwives between the total number of funded posts and the number of posts recommended using the Birthrate Plus midwifery workforce planning tool.

The Department has not made an assessment of the extent of shortages in obstetricians in the National Health Service in England.