Written questions by Hunt.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure the timely publication of the 2023-24 report by NHS England on learning from lives and deaths: people with a learning disability and autistic people.

NHS England commissions Kings College London and its partners to analyse data from the publication, Learning from Lives and Deaths: People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People. The annual report is published by Kings College London, which is currently working on the next annual report and NHS England advises it will publish this shortly. The last report was published in November 2023 and is available at the following link:https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/assets/fans-dept/leder-2022-v2.0.pdf

What proportion of NHS Secondary Care Trusts are reporting all of the legally required elements of the Learning from Deaths national guidance.

This information is not collected centrally. All National Health Service trusts, apart from NHS ambulance trusts, are required to meet the reporting requirements in The National Health Service (Quality Accounts) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 relating to national learning from deaths policy. These reporting requirements are set out in the National Guidance on Learning from Deaths, published in March 2017. The guidance is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/nqb-national-guidance-learning-from-deaths.pdfThe reporting requirements on learning from deaths for NHS ambulance trusts are set out in National Guidance for Ambulance Trusts on Learning from Deaths, published in July 2019, and are available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/learning-from-deaths-guidance-for-ambulance-trusts.pdfUnder the NHS Standard Contract, trusts are required to comply with national guidance on learning from deaths where applicable.

If he will launch a new National Maternity Safety Ambition.

The National Maternity Safety Ambition was launched in 2015 and will end in 2025. As part of our consultation on the 10-year health plan, we will first consider the best ways to improve maternity safety so that the NHS has the tools it needs to deliver improved safety outcomes for women and their babies and to meet any associated targets.

Whether the investigation into maternity incidents at Gloucestershire Hospitals Foundation Trust has started.

The trust has committed to a thematic review of all neonatal and maternal deaths since 2019. This has started for neonatal deaths but not for maternal deaths, due to delays identifying an external assessor.The trust is engaging with the NHS England South West Region to resolve this issue as soon as possible, and remains committed to publishing and sharing the findings from both reviews openly.

With reference to recommendation 44 of the Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation, published in March 2015, what steps his Department has taken to establish a proper framework on which future investigations could be promptly established.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all women and babies received safe, personalised, equitable, and compassionate care. We are determined to learn lessons from inquiries and investigations.The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch became an independent investigations body known as the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) in April 2023, through the Health and Care Act 2022. Its role is to investigate incidents occurring during the provision of health care services that have, or may have, implications for patient safety. The HSSIB will conduct investigations using a no-blame approach, that is supported by a safe space which encourages participants, including patients, families, and staff, to share information in confidence. This aims to encourage the spread of a culture of learning within the National Health Service and independent sector.As set out in the Health and Care Act 2022, the HSSIB will also provide advice, guidance, and training to NHS bodies upon request. The HSSIB has established their own processes and principles around matters such as evidence handling and access to documentation.NHS England has created a National Independent Patient Safety Investigation Framework, which is an internally focussed approach to support the commissioning and management of independent investigations.