Written questions by Thompson.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the report by UK Day One entitled Reform Academic Publishing to Unblock Innovation, published on 5 September 2024, if he will make an assessment of (a) the potential merits of requiring the publication of all taxpayer-funded research as preprints before they are submitted to academic journals and (b) the value for money of UKRI’s policy on open access block grants.

The UKRI open access policy aims to make the results of publicly funded research immediately available so they can be accessed and built upon. UKRI encourages preprints across research disciplines and reserves the right to require preprints where necessary.UKRI Open Access Block Grant Awards support institutions in meeting its policy requirements. Awards cover article publishing charges (APCs) only under certain value for money terms as well as the sharing of papers via repositories and improvements to digital research infrastructures. UKRI monitors progress on open access, as well as how best to increase the accessibility of the research it funds.

What steps he is taking to ensure that (a) progress can be monitored on all maternity safety improvement schemes and (b) all schemes can be effectively evaluated to assess impact.

Improving safety and outcomes for women and babies is central to NHS England’s three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services, which is built on recommendations from recent maternity safety inquiries and specifically addresses the key themes they raised. The plan includes measures to determine success that will be used to monitor outcomes and progress in achieving key objectives in the plan. To facilitate monitoring against the key objectives, NHS England published technical guidance which includes information to provide clarity on the data sources and indicator construction for these measures.There are a number of measures in place to monitor progress of maternity safety improvement schemes, including the perinatal quality oversight model (PQOM). The PQOM provides a structure with clear lines of responsibility and accountability for addressing and escalating quality and safety risks at a trust, integrated care board, regional, and national level.The Maternity Safety Support Programme provides dedicated and intensive support to trusts that require additional support. Maternity improvement advisors work closely with trusts to develop tailored maternity improvement plans and monitor progress. NHS England undertook an evaluation of the programme this year and they are currently exploring where improvements can be made.