Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions Ministers of his Department have had with Ministers of the Department for Justice on the investigation of stillbirths and neonatal deaths.
Answered by Philip Dunne
No recent meetings have been held with colleagues at the Ministry of Justice to discuss this subject.
By law coroners can only investigate deaths of a baby when they have lived independently of their mother. Coroners have no role in investigating stillbirths, and there are no plans to change this. If there is doubt as to whether a baby was stillborn or lived independently of their mother the loss should be reported to the coroner to consider whether an investigation should be carried out.
We are providing £500,000 of funding, via the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, for the development of a new system - the Standardised Perinatal Mortality Review Tool – which once complete will be used across the National Health Service to enable maternity services to review and learn from every stillbirth and neonatal death. We have also asked the new independent Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, established in April 2016, to consider a particular focus on maternity services in its first year.
On 17 October my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health announced a comprehensive package of measures designed dramatically to improve the safety of maternity care in the NHS, with a particular focus on learning and supporting the NHS to become the world’s largest learning organisation. The announcement introduced the commitment to consult on a new voluntary alternative to litigation for families affected by severe birth injury (Rapid Resolution and Redress (RRR)).
RRR will provide an independent and thorough investigation of all instances of severe avoidable birth injury (around 500 cases per year), and for eligible cases the option to join an alternative system of compensation that offers support and regular payments without the need to bring a claim through the courts. We will be consulting to ensure the policy design best meets the needs of families.
Asked by: Chris Heaton-Harris (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which coronial jurisdictions have recorded stillbirth conclusions in each year since 2009.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Chief Coroner is working towards improving consistency across coroner areas in England and Wales by providing written advice and guidance to coroners amongst other matters. He will consider in due course whether to issue guidance on good practice in relation to neonatal deaths to all coroners.
The number of coroner areas with stillborn inquest conclusions recorded from 2009 to 2014 is published in the department's annual coroner statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/427440/coroners-statistics-2014-csv.csv. Coroner areas with stillborn inquest conclusions recorded: 2009-2014 | ||||||
Coroner Area | Number of stillborn inquest conclusions | |||||
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |
Avon | - | - | 3 | 1 | - | - |
Birmingham and Solihull | - | - | 3 | 1 | - | - |
Black Country | - | - | 3 | - | - | - |
Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley | - | 1 | - | - | 1 | - |
Brighton and Hove | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
Central Hampshire | - | - | - | - | 1 | - |
Cheshire | 1 | - | - | - | - | - |
Cornwall | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | - |
Coventry | - | - | - | - | 1 | - |
Darlington and South Durham1 | - | 1 | - | - | .. | .. |
East Riding and Hull | 1 | - | - | - | - | 1 |
Gwent | - | 1 | - | - | - | - |
Inner North London | - | - | - | - | 3 | - |
Leicester City and South Leicestershire | - | - | - | 1 | - | - |
Liverpool | - | - | - | 2 | 3 | - |
Manchester City | - | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Manchester North | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
Milton Keynes | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | - |
North and West Cumbria | 1 | - | - | - | - | - |
North Durham1 | 1 | - | - | 1 | .. | .. |
North East Kent | - | 1 | - | - | - | - |
North London | - | 2 | - | - | - | - |
Plymouth and South West Devon2 | 1 | - | - | - | .. | .. |
Preston and West Lancashire | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | - |
South and East Cumbria | 1 | - | - | - | - | - |
South London | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
Southampton and New Forest | - | - | - | - | 1 | - |
Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | - |
Suffolk | - | - | - | 1 | - | - |
Swansea and Neath Port Talbot3 | .. | .. | .. | .. | - | 1 |
Wolverhampton4 | 1 | - | - | .. | .. | .. |
Source: | ||||||
Coroner's annual returns | ||||||
Notes: | ||||||
1. Amalgamated with "North Durham" in 2012, now known as "County Durham and Darlington" | ||||||
2. Amalgamated with "Torbay and South Devon" in 2013, now known as "Plymouth, Torbay and South Devon" | ||||||
3. Amalgamation of "Neath and Port Talbot" and "City and County of Swansea" in 2013 | ||||||
4. Amalgamated with "Black Country" in 2013, now known as "Black Country" | ||||||
.. = No Data Available | ||||||
- = Nil | ||||||
Data can be found on CSV files accompanying the Coroners Statistics publication https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/427440/coroners-statistics-2014-csv.csv
| ||||||
Asked by: David Mowat (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the inquest into the death of Clara Tully, if he will bring forward proposals to allow inquests on infants who die during labour.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Coroners must investigate all deaths which are sudden, unnatural, violent, or of unknown cause. This can include deaths of newborn babies such as in the tragic case of Clara Tully. Coroners cannot by law investigate cases in which a child has not lived independently of its mother, such as stillbirths. They can, however, open an investigation if there is any doubt over whether there was independent life, once they have received a report of the case. There are also hospital and medical investigations into stillbirths.
The Chief Coroner, HHJ Peter Thornton QC, is considering actions to improve consistency and good practice.