Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an urgent assessment of the adequacy of the operation of the telemedicine abortion policy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
We have no plans to make an assessment of the adequacy of this policy’s operation.
Parliament decides the circumstances under which abortion is permitted. It would be for Parliament to decide whether to change the law on abortion. The Department continues to work closely with NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and abortion providers to ensure abortions are only performed in accordance with the legal requirements set down by Parliament in the 1967 Abortion Act.
Home use of early medical abortion pills is permitted if the pregnancy has not exceeded 10 weeks gestation at the time the first medicine in the course is administered. If there is any uncertainty about the gestation of the pregnancy, the woman should attend an in-person appointment. If she does not attend in-person, the doctor would not be able to form an opinion in good faith that the pregnancy is below 10 weeks gestation and therefore would not be able to prescribe abortion pills for home use.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the legal time limit for abortions.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
No assessment has been made. As with other matters of conscience, abortion is an issue on which the Government adopts a neutral stance. Any change to the law in this area would be a matter of conscience for individual Parliamentarians rather than for the Government.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential risks of the provision of abortion pills through the post to women who are beyond the legal limit for gestational age; and if he will commission an urgent review into the potential impact of at-home abortion provision on women’s (a) health and (b) safety.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
No assessment has been made. The Government has no current plans to commission a review into the impact of home use of pills for abortion on women’s health and safety.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with abortion providers on potential changes to the law on abortion.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department has not held discussions with abortion providers regarding potential changes to the 1967 Abortion Act.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the safeguards used in the abortion pills by post scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Following amendments to the 1967 Abortion Act that allow women in England and Wales to take early medical abortion (EMA) pills at home, the Department have taken forward work to ensure that robust safeguarding processes for home-use EMA are embedded across all services. This included publication of national safeguarding guidance for under 18 year olds accessing EMA services, and strengthening the Department’s Required Standard Operating Procedures, which all independent abortion providers must comply with, to require providers to have robust safeguarding processes in place to identify and support women and girls who need it.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will review the effectiveness of the operation of Section 178 of the Health and Care Act 2022 on the early medical termination of pregnancies at home.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
There are no current plans to review or hold an inquiry into the operation of Section 178 of the Health and Care Act 2022.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will hold an inquiry into the operation of Section 178 of the Health and Care Act 2022 on the early medical termination of pregnancies at home.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
There are no current plans to review or hold an inquiry into the operation of Section 178 of the Health and Care Act 2022.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of immediate closure of abortion clinics that fail to ensure proper safety procedures are in place for under 16 year olds.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
There are no plans to change the existing systems in place to ensure that under 16 year olds receive safe, age appropriate abortion care. All independent sector services wishing to perform termination of pregnancy must be approved by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) before they are able to provide abortion services. The CQC inspect independent sector abortion services. If a CQC inspection identifies instances of non-compliance, then appropriate regulatory action will be taken.
The Department expects all abortion providers to have due regard to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health national guidance on safeguarding under 18 year olds accessing early medical abortion services, which will ensure that robust safeguarding processes are embedded across all abortion services. This guidance is available at the following link:
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of eligible patients with end stage kidney failure in (a) Blackpool South constituency and (b) NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated care board and its predecessor were given access to home based haemodialysis in each year since 2019.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The requested data is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were living with chronic kidney disease with classification of categories G3a to G5 in (a) Blackpool South and (b) NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated care board and its predecessor in each year since 2019.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The requested data is not held in the format requested.