PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Abortion (30 November 2018)

Information on reports of serious incidents at British Pregnancy Advisory Service clinics and the number of women transferred to National Health Service trusts for emergency care after attending a British Pregnancy Advisory Service clinic is not reported to the Department. Serious incident notifications are sent to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which is responsible for ensuring that requirements under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 are met by the providers of termination of pregnancy services including meeting the fundamental standards of quality and safety as set out in Part 3 to the 2014 Regulations, and Regulation 20 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, which is specific to independent sector termination of pregnancy providers.

In addition, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has the power to approve independent sector providers to perform termination of pregnancy. All approved clinics must agree to comply with the Secretary of State’s requirements in the form of Required Standard Operating Principles.

The CQC inspection report of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) Merseyside identified a number of areas of concern regarding all areas of operation at the service. These concerns were addressed locally through a joint action plan between BPAS Merseyside, the CQC and Halton Clinical Commissioning Group. The CQC monitors the action plan through ongoing engagement with BPAS Merseyside.