To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 13 December 2007, Official Report, column 875W, on maternity services, which trusts provided maternity services in each of the five years before 2005-06. (178009)

We do not collect this information centrally. However, data for 2004-05 are in “NHS Maternity Statistics, England: 2004-05” copies of which are available in the Library. Copies of the 2002-03, 2001-02 reports are also available in the Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the oral answer to the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Olner) of 5 February 2008, Official Report, column 784, on maternity services, what the evidential basis is for his statement that the UK is the safest country in the world in which to deliver babies. (186874)

[holding answer 18 February 2008]: The United Kingdom is one of the safest countries in the world in which to deliver babies. The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health's publication, “Saving Mothers' Lives: Reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer—2003-2005” published in December 2007 (copies of which have been placed in the Library) indicated that there were just under seven maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in the UK in the three years to 2005. The UK is very near to the top in any league table, with much lower death rates than the United States or France.