Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to tackle shortages of midwifes.

We have committed to expanding midwifery training places by 3,650 against the 2018/19 baseline between 2019/20 and 2022/23, with an increase of 650 in 2019/20 and 1,000 per year in subsequent years. NHS England is also supporting trusts to establish and expand midwifery international recruitment.

In 2022, an additional £127 million has been invested in the National Health Service maternity workforce and improving neonatal care. This is in addition to the £95 million invested in 2021 to fund a further 1,200 midwives and 100 consultant obstetricians.