Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has issued recent guidance to integrated care boards on its powers to require hospitals to provide (a) maternity and (b) children's services.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) have a statutory duty to commission most healthcare services in the National Health Service for their respective populations in line with their other statutory duties and guidance. This means that ICBs are responsible for evaluating the needs of their local population and then planning and arranging the delivery of healthcare services to meet those needs by working with local providers as well as people and communities.