Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women have given birth in prison in each year since 2015; and what proportion of those women had an appropriately trained medical professional present at the birth.

The information is not centrally held and could obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, all pregnant women in custody have an individual care and management plan that is communicated to all staff and all pregnant women are seen by a mid-wife at least fortnightly or as required.

Healthcare in prisons is provided by trained medics and nurses, but we have also made training on dealing with pregnant women available to all prison officers.

We know it is extremely rare for a woman to give birth in prison - because every step is taken to get them to hospital - but those unique cases are invariably down to the unpredictability of labour.