Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Ockenden report, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the progress in delivering the Immediate and Essential Actions; and if he will publish an update on the implementation status of each action within every NHS trust providing maternity care.

The final report of the Ockenden review contained 96 immediate and essential actions (IEAs), some national and some for local implementation. The IEAs contained in the Ockenden review were brought together, alongside other reports and guidance, into NHS England’s three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services. A review of progress against the national actions in April 2025 demonstrated that work has been completed for many actions, but that there have been some challenges, for example in pre-conception care for women with pre-existing medical conditions.

NHS England wrote to all trusts and systems following publication of the review in April 2022, asking them to deliver the recommendations and report to their public boards. The expectation is that local board oversight of progress with implementation should be ongoing. Following discussion, it was agreed that some of the actions should not be universally implemented, for example newly qualified midwives remaining hospital based for one year post-qualifying.

More widely, Baroness Amos is leading a rapid, national, independent investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal services to help us to understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies, and families experience unacceptable care. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has agreed with Baroness Amos that the investigation will publish its final report and recommendations in the spring of 2026, bringing together the findings of past reviews into one clear national set of recommendations.

The Government is also setting up a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The taskforce will take forward the recommendations of the investigation to develop a new national action plan to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care.