To ask the Minister of Health for his assessment of the Sands and Tommy’s Policy Unit May 2025 report entitled Saving Babies’ Lives 2025.

The third annual Saving Babies’ Lives’ Progress report which includes National Maternity Safety Ambitions, aims to halve the 2010 rates of stillbirth, neonatal and maternal deaths, and neonatal brain injuries and reduce the rate of preterm birth from 8% to 6%. It should be noted that this report only covers England.

I want to assure you that Saving babies’ lives is a key priority for my Department. There is a comprehensive programme of work currently underway to support the implementation of the recommendations set out within the Saving Babies lives care bundle. This work is being led collaboratively across the region, with a dedicated group established to oversee progress.

The group actively reviews implementation status, identifies any gaps, challenges, or areas requiring additional focus, and works collectively to address them. Informed by this analysis, a regional action plan has been developed, setting out clear priorities to support consistent, high-quality maternity care and drive forward improvements in outcomes.

This structured approach ensures that identified issues are addressed in a coordinated way and that best practice is shared across services to support the overall aims of reducing stillbirth and improving neonatal outcomes.

This work supports the development of a regional action plan for Maternity and Neonatal Services, which consolidates all the actions / recommendations from the suite of work on maternity and neonatal safety that has been taken forward by the Maternity and Neonatal Services Safety Oversight Group.

It is clear that there will be a funding requirement associated with the full implementation of the regional action plan for improving maternity and neonatal services, however while it is not possible to allocate additional funding due to the significant funding deficit my department faces, my officials are working closely with the Public Health Agency and Trusts to improve services within existing resources.