Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the rate of stillbirths in Surrey and Sussex; and if he will make a statement.

We have made reducing stillbirth an improvement area for the National Health Service in the NHS Outcomes Framework.

We are advised by NHS England that NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in Surrey have collectively done significant work relating to perinatal mortality rates, which includes stillbirths. An independent review by the Royal College of Paediatricians and Child Health in 2013 determined that Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (ASPH) was not an outlier with respect to stillbirths. The North West Surrey and Guildford and Waverley CCGs continue to work with ASPH on maternity and paediatric pathways.