Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress her Department has made towards setting a target to close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap.

The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce is currently considering a wide range of evidence and proposals to inform its development of the Maternity and Neonatal Action Plan, and in her response to the debate on Baby Loss Awareness Week on 12 October, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who is chairing the taskforce, made clear that inequalities in maternal mortality related to ethnicity would be a key focus for its work, and that the action plan will be published before the end of the year.