§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will list the number of booked home deliveries in each health authority for each of the last five years;
(2) if he will list the number of born before arrival cases for each health authority for each of the last five years.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe information requested is not collected centrally.
§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the number of legal actions taken against(a) obstetricians, (b) hospital midwives, (c) general practitioners in attendance at birth and (d) community midwives over the last five years.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyWe do not hold this information centrally.
§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what provision each health authority makes for the training of student midwives in home births.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting—UKCC—is responsible for establishing the standards of training necessary for midwives and for ensuring that the standard of midwifery training programmes meet European Community requirements.
109WEC directives on the training of midwives require that each student midwife will conduct 40 deliveries during training. There are no specific requirements on where the deliveries should take place.
Each school or college of midwifery reaches agreement locally on the appropriate clinical experience for its midwives. All schools and colleges must be recognised by the relevant national board—of nursing, midwifery and health visiting—which must also ensure that training courses meet UKCC and EC standards.