Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many multiple births there were in England in each year since 2013; and what proportion of those multiple births were the result of fertility treatments.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many multiple births there were in England in 2017.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of recording the time of birth on birth certificates; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Time of birth is currently recorded in cases of multiple live births in England and Wales. There are no current plans to review the detail collected and recorded in other live births.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the potential increase in the number of people seeking IVF treatment abroad and the consequences of this for multiple birth rates.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that it does not have any powers to regulate treatment which takes place outside the United Kingdom. It therefore holds no data on the number of patients who travel abroad for their treatment and is unable to assess the potential impact this may have on multiple birth rates. The HFEA provides information on its website advising patients of the risks of multiple pregnancies and suggesting that patients seeking treatment abroad should discuss these risks and how to minimise them with their overseas clinic.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment the Government has made of the adequacy of the length of maternity and paternity leave of parents who have multiple births.
Answered by Margot James
The UK’s maternity leave arrangements are among the most generous in the world. All employed mothers are entitled to up to 52 weeks of maternity leave and most are entitled to 39 weeks of statutory pay - nearly three times the minimum required by the EU. This provides mothers with sufficient leave to cope with unexpected eventualities including ill health and complications associated with multiple births.
Employers must also allow their pregnant employees paid time off work for all antenatal care. A pregnant woman expecting a multiple birth will therefore be entitled to sufficient time off work to attend additional antenatal appointments as required.
Paternity Leave provisions give the father/partner some flexibility in when to take up to two weeks of leave, subject to eligibility. Fathers/partners also have other employment rights which can support them in adjusting to challenging circumstances such as multiple births. These include the right to emergency leave (time off for dependents), the right to Parental Leave (which extends to all employed parents) and a right to time off work to attend up to two antenatal appointments.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many local authorities offered the Tell Us Once service for registering child births in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Tell Us Once (TUO) is a voluntary service administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It is offered at the time of a verified birth and death by local authorities (LAs). It offers the citizen the option of sharing information with a range of public sector services at one time, avoiding the need for the citizen to separately inform multiple organisations.
The table below gives details on the numbers providing the Birth Service for each of the last 5 years.
Year | Number of LAs offering TUO birth service |
2012 | 222 |
2013 | 234 |
2014 | 216 |
2015 | 201 |
2016 | 140 |
Asked by: Lord Winston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government with regard to (1) oocytes frozen for a patients' own use in the UK, and (2) frozen oocytes used for the purpose of donation to another woman, in how many cases for each year from 2008 to 2015 more than one embryo was transferred simultaneously to the uterus and how many multiple pregnancies or multiple births have resulted.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has provided data in the following table.
Patients using their own eggs:
Year of treatment | Multiple Embryo Transfer events | Incidences of Multiple births or pregnancies from multiple embryo transfer events |
2008 | 10 | 0 |
2009 | 23 | 0 |
2010 | 34 | Less than 5 |
2011 | 25 | Less than 5 |
2012 | 44 | Less than 5 |
2013 | 46 | Less than 5 |
2014 (Mid year for births) | 58 | 0 |
2015 (Mid year for births) | 38 | * |
Patients using donor eggs:
Year of treatment | Multiple Embryo Transfer Events | Incidences of Multiple births or pregnancies from multiple embryo transfer events |
2008 | 0 | 0 |
2009 | Less than 5 | 0 |
2010 | 21 | Less than 5 |
2011 | 46 | 5 |
2012 | 44 | Less than 5 |
2013 | 46 | Less than 5 |
2014 (Mid year for births) | 64 | 7 |
2015 (Mid year for treatments) | 74 | * |
* Part year data not available.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to publish the membership of the body which will oversee the proposed review of neonatal services in England; and whether that review will examine (a) admissions rates, (b) length of stay and (c) outcomes by (i) singleton and (ii) multiple pregnancies.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The NHS England Maternity Review, Better Births (published February 2016), made a number of recommendations including a review of neonatal critical care. NHS England’s Women and Children’s Programme of Care and its Neonatal Critical Care Clinical Reference Group (CRG) will take this work forward. The review will focus on a number of themes and variables including admission rates, length of stay, outcomes and pregnancy profiles.
NHS England’s Women and Children’s Programme of Care Board will oversee the review and will also report progress to the Maternity Transformation Programme. The membership of the team that will oversee the review is not yet finalised, but Dr Peter Wilson, the Clinical Co-Chair of the Women and Children’s Programme of Care Board will be the Senior Responsible Officer.
Membership is also expected to include the Chair of the Neonatal Critical Care CRG Professor Neil Marlow, Lead Commissioner Natalie Hariram, and National Programme of Care Manager for Women and Children’s Services, Mary Passant, who are currently working on the scope of the review. The review team will also involve all Neonatal Care Operational Delivery Network Managers.
The Maternity Transformation Programme has asked that the review report initial findings in December 2016.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether NICE has assessed the potential merits of producing guidance for managing delivery and birth in twin pregnancies; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has advised that it recognises that there is a gap in its existing guidelines with regards to intrapartum care for multiple pregnancies and is considering the most appropriate approach as part of a wider review of all of its pregnancy guidelines.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many premature babies were born in (a) England and (b) each local authority in 2015.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Information is not available in the format requested. The gestation length is not recorded on an individual birth record, but on the mother's delivery episode. Therefore we cannot provide the number of births, as a single delivery may involve multiple births.