Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answers of 6 February 2019 and 26 February 2019 to Question 214478 on Foetuses: Surgery and Question 223137 on Abortion, which establish a variation in practice for some procedures in the womb for the administration of pain relief for unborn babies of 20 weeks, for what reasons there are such variations in practice; what steps he is taking to tackle such variations in practice; and if he will make a statement.

The Department does not set clinical practice. It is for clinicians to determine whether it is appropriate to provide fetal pain relief. Decisions will be informed by the individual circumstances of each case and consideration of appropriate professional guidelines.