Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure the maintenance of NICE standards on antenatal services in prisons.

People in prisons should receive the same standard and access to National Health Service healthcare treatments and care as people in the community.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published quality standards on antenatal care (QS22) and antenatal and postnatal mental health (QS115). NICE quality standards are concise sets of statements designed to drive quality improvements within a particular area of care and cover the NHS, public health and social care. The Department does not have any arrangements for monitoring the uptake of NICE quality standards centrally as they are not mandatory, however health and care commissioners are expected to take them fully into account.

NHS England is responsible for commissioning healthcare services in prisons in England. It is working closely with Public Health England and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service on a review of how current practice meets the gender specific standards for women in prison to improve health and wellbeing, published in March 2019, which include standards around the care of pregnant and post pregnant women.