Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether an update to the digital maternity record standard is planned to limit birth outcomes to coded values, and ensure that a value is included for second trimester miscarriage.

Whilst it is possible, it is not mandatory for trusts to record second trimester miscarriage through the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). The requirements for the next iteration for the MSDS include more detailed data collection around pregnancy outcomes, including on miscarriage. Timescales for this next iteration are yet to be confirmed.

There are no specific plans to update the Digital Maternity Record Standard at present, as the current version has yet to be fully implemented by all maternity system suppliers. However, this will be considered as part of wider maternity data architecture design work, which will also support the MSDS and the Single Patient Record.