Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with Ministers of the devolved administrations on proposals to end the statutory supervision of midwives.

Ministers in the devolved administrations have been briefed by their Chief Nursing Officers who have been closely involved in the discussions on the changes to statutory supervision of midwives.

The Department will soon be launching a full public consultation on a Section 60 Order (of the Health Act 1999) on midwifery regulation which includes a proposal to remove statutory midwifery supervision from the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s governing legislation.