Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will review the safeguarding measures in place for the provision of telemedicine abortion services.

Safeguarding is an essential aspect of abortion care, including in telemedicine abortion services. The Department’s Required Standard Operating Procedures for approved independent sector abortion providers in England (RSOPs) include the requirement that all abortion providers have effective arrangements in place to safeguard vulnerable women accessing home-use early medical abortion. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspects against all of the Department’s RSOPs when it inspects an independent sector provider, and safeguarding procedures are included in the CQC’s Termination of Pregnancy inspection framework as areas to be considered during an inspection.

In addition, the Department commissioned the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to develop new national safeguarding guidance for children and young people under 18 years old accessing early medical abortion services, which was published on 30 August 2022, to ensure that robust safeguarding processes are embedded across all abortion services.