Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the reporting of Hospital Episode Statistics on abortion complications treated at NHS hospitals, as published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities on 23 November, is made part of that Office's routine annual reporting of abortion statistics in England and Wales.

The recent release of statistics comparing data from the Department’s Abortion Notification System and the Hospital Episode Statistics was an ad hoc official statistics in development publication, formerly known as experimental statistics. There are currently no plans to issue a similar publication annually.

The Department is inviting views on abortion statistics for England and Wales via an online user engagement survey and via email at abortion.statistics@dhsc.gov.uk.