Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch’s national review of Intrapartum stillbirths during the COVID-19 pandemic published in September 2021; and what steps he plans to take in response to that report.

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch’s (HSIB) national review set out that there remains uncertainty among experts as to whether the rate of stillbirths has increased during the pandemic. The stillbirth rate has fallen by 25% since 2010 and we continue work to achieve our ambition to halve the 2010 rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries in babies occurring during or soon after birth by 2025.

The HSIB report also recommended that the Department commission a review to improve the reliability of existing assessment tools for fetal growth and fetal heart rate to minimise the risk for babies. The Department is considering this recommendation and will publish an official response in due course.