Written Question: Abortions at Home

Lord Moylan: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 19 October (HL3978), and in light of the requirement from 1 April 2023 for HSA4 abortion notification forms to record "whether any part of the consultation and treatment was provided face to face by a registered medical practitioner, nurse or midwife", whether the Department of Health and Social Care holds the information submitted in line with that requirement; if so, how many abortions in 2023 were recorded as (1) involving, and (2) not involving, face-to-face consultation or treatment; and if those figures are not available, why this is the case.

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lady Merron): Since April 2023, as the Noble Lord says, HSA4 abortion notification forms submitted to the Department have included the question “If any medicines were administered at the patient’s usual place of residence, whether any part of the patient’s consultation and treatment for the termination of pregnancy was provided face to face”.

However, the data held by the Department does not cover the full year of 2023, the latest year for which official abortion statistics have been published, and that is why we have explained that data is not available for the number of medical abortions in 2023 that were recorded as involving, or not involving, face-to-face consultation.