Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what measures are in place for the NHS to collect clinical data and record injuries and deaths of children resulting from the ingestion of button batteries in the UK.

The NHS England commissioned National Child Mortality Database Programme collects information on all live-born children resident in England who die before their 18th birthday, which includes information on deaths resulting from the ingestion of button batteries.

For injuries caused by ingestion of button batteries, the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) includes relevant codes that enable us to identify where children have attended accident and emergency having ingested button batteries. However, the ECDS is a new data set therefore NHS Digital would require an assessment and validation of these codes.