HL Deb 11 June 1998 vol 590 cc101-2WA
Lord Acton

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they have introduced into women's prisons in England and Wales the recommendations of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons about childbirth in Women in Prison: A Thematic Review. [HL2096]

Lord Williams of Mostyn

The Prison Service is committed to implementing, in partnership with the National Health Service and within the constraints necessarily presented by imprisonment, the principal recommendations ofChanging Childbirth. However, the objective set out in Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prison's thematic review of implementing these recommendations by December 1997, itself an earlier target date than that to which the NHS was committed, could not be met. Progress is being made in line with developments in local NHS maternity services which provide antenatal and postnatal care for pregnant prisoners, as well as the necessary hospital facilities for childbirth.