Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure adequate funding for improvements to maternity wards in (a) Leicester East and (b) England.

NHS England’s Three-Year Delivery plan is investing an additional £35 million between 2024 and 2027 to improve maternity safety across England.

University Hospital Leicester (UHL) remains determined to transform care for its growing population and radically upgrade its estate. As part of the New Hospitals Programme, UHL plans to build a new maternity hospital at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, alongside reorganising maternity and neonatal services. This includes improved facilities at Leicester General Hospital, with a midwife-led birthing unit. The trust is finalising new timelines and assessing the risks and mitigation of managing the current estate and service configuration.

NHS England will publish the findings of the National Health Service maternity and neonatal estates survey, which examined compliance against the current estates’ standards, and it will be published at the earliest opportunity.