Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press notice entitled 14 NHS trusts the focus of national maternity investigation, published on 15 September 2025, which NHS Trusts selected for the maternity investigation were examples of (a) high performing, (b) poor performing and (c) substantially improved Trusts.

The Department has not selected which trusts to include in the independent maternity and neonatal investigation.

The 14 NHS trusts were selected by the independent investigation based on a variety of factors, including results from the Care Quality Commission’s maternity patient survey and Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK’s perinatal mortality rates, in addition to variation in case mix, trust type, geographic coverage, provision of care to individuals from diverse backgrounds, and family feedback. Three of the trusts have been included due to their inclusion in previous investigations, these three trusts being the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, and the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

The chair’s selection of the 14 trusts has been made with a view to ensuring a diverse mix of trusts, including variation in case mix, trust type, geographic and demographic coverage and views expressed by families. By taking this approach, the investigation can capture learning from a wide range of provision and experiences, ensuring that the findings are relevant across the system.

The Department does not specifically hold data on whether National Health Service trusts are high performing, poor performing, and/or substantially improved. The latest available data on all 14 trusts is available at the following link:

https://www.cqc.org.uk/