Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include a maternal six-week check in the new General Medical Services contract; and when the current negotiations will conclude.

The inclusion of a requirement to carry out the six-week maternal postnatal check for all mothers in the general medical services contract would need to be negotiated and agreed, as part of the annual contract negotiations. We have asked for this issue to be considered in the contract negotiations for 2019/20. The negotiations are expected to be concluded before the end of the year. The details of those negotiations are not generally discussed until an agreement on the way forward has been reached.