Whilst it is possible, it is not mandatory for trusts to record second trimester miscarriage through the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). The requirements for the next iteration for the MSDS include more detailed data collection around pregnancy outcomes, including on miscarriage. Timescales for this next iteration are yet to be confirmed.

There are no specific plans to update the Digital Maternity Record Standard at present, as the current version has yet to be fully implemented by all maternity system suppliers. However, this will be considered as part of wider maternity data architecture design work, which will also support the MSDS and the Single Patient Record.

Pharmacies are private businesses and may open or close for a range of reasons. Therefore, while the Department monitors closures within the sector, there is no reliable source of data on the specific reasons for pharmacy closures.

However, access to pharmaceutical services remains good, with 80% of patients able to access a pharmacy within a 20-minute walk. Additionally, there are processes in place to monitor openings and closures, and any reductions and increases in opening hours and their impact.

Local authorities are required to undertake a pharmaceutical needs assessment (PNA) every three years to assess whether their population is adequately served and they must keep these assessments under review. Integrated care boards have regard to the PNAs when reviewing applications from new contractors. Contractors can also apply to open a new pharmacy to offer benefits to patients that were not foreseen by the PNA. Options are available to patients to access alternative pharmacies or distance selling pharmacies.

On 18 December 2025, NHS England published the Review into the operation and delivery of NHS Adult Gender Dysphoria Clinics, which was chaired by Dr David Levy. This review provides a strong basis for action to improve adult gender services.

Recommendation 13 of the review states that NHS England should work with adult gender dysphoria clinics (GDCs) to establish a national minimum dataset so medium and long-term patient outcomes can be understood following treatment by the adult GDCs, and to develop a national research strategy for adult gender dysphoria services.

NHS England, in full partnership with the Department, will now take forward the implementation of the review’s recommendations.

The publication date of the abortion statistics for England and Wales for the calendar year 2024 has not yet been announced. We will announce the date of the 2024 data publication in due course.

The statistics have been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process.

It is a priority for the Government to increase the amount of time people spend in good health and prevent premature deaths, with a vision of ensuring that all individuals, regardless of background or location, live longer, healthier lives.

We remain committed to reducing the gap in healthy life expectancy (HLE) between the richest and poorest, an ambitious commitment that shows the Government is serious about tackling health inequalities and addressing the social determinants of health. Indicators to monitor progress in health inequalities are measured in key data outcomes, such as the life expectancy estimates for England and sub-national areas, produced by the Office for National Statistics.

The Government bases decisions on a robust evidence base. For example, we know that the Carr-Hill formula is considered outdated, and evidence suggests that general practices (GPs) serving in deprived parts of England receive on average 9.8% less funding per needs adjusted patient than those in less deprived communities, despite having greater health needs and significantly higher patient-to-GP ratios. This is why we are currently reviewing the formula to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed.

We are targeting key metrics such as the HLE gap to enable cross-Government action on primary prevention such as regulation of tobacco, controlling air pollution, and tackling poverty. We also support NHS England’s CORE20PLUS5 approach which targets action to reduce health inequalities in the most deprived 20% of the population and improve outcomes for groups that experience the worst access, experience, and outcomes within the National Health Service.

Publication of the 2023 abortion statistics has been pre-announced for 15 January 2026 and will be published on the GOV.UK website.

We will announce the exact date for publication of the 2024 abortion statistics in due course.

In the response to the Health and Social Care Statistical Outputs consultation, published in November 2024, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) set out some changes to statistical publications in the health inequalities space to rationalise statistics to make the landscape easier to navigate.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) stated that it would merge ‘Health state life expectancies by national deprivation deciles, England’, ‘Health state life expectancies by national deprivation quintiles, Wales’, ‘Health state life expectancies, UK’ and ‘Life expectancy for local areas of the UK’. The ONS has merged the ‘Health state life expectancies by national deprivation deciles, England’ and ‘Health state life expectancies by national deprivation quintiles, Wales’ releases. ‘Health state life expectancies, UK’ and ‘Life expectancy for local areas of the UK’ have not been merged, and the ONS is still exploring options for merging these publications.

The health state life expectancies releases have previously reported on disability-free life expectancy, but the ONS has temporarily paused production of this statistic while developing improvements to how healthy life expectancy is measured. The ONS intends to resume publishing disability-free life expectancy, potentially with an improved methodology, once a new methodology for healthy life expectancy is agreed.

DHSC has set out that we are exploring the best way to implement merging the ‘Health inequalities dashboard’ with the ‘Segment tool’. This change has not yet been implemented as DHSC is working towards creating a new service for public health data on GOV.UK. We are considering whether the data from the ‘Health inequalities dashboard’ and the ‘Segment tool’ can be made available in this new service.

The Department does intend to publish abortion statistics in England and Wales for 2023 and 2024. The publication dates for these statistics have not yet been announced.

Publication of the 2023 statistics is provisionally planned for winter 2025/26. We will announce the exact dates for publication of the 2023 and, later, 2024 data in due course.

The statistics have been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process.

A range of people working in different roles, civil service grades, and professions work on compiling the abortion statistics for England and Wales. This includes analysts, data entry specialists, policy professionals, and publications and communications specialists, whose contributions towards the abortion statistics publication make up varying degrees of their core role. For this reason, it is not possible to fully quantify the number of individuals compiling the abortion statistics. However, in the two main teams, the Department’s abortion statistics and abortion data entry teams, the combined number of staff, which represent the number of individuals rather than the number of full-time equivalent staff, below Senior Civil Servant grade was nine on 2 January 2023 and 10 on 17 October 2025.

The publication dates of the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales publication for the years 2023 and 2024 have not yet been announced. Publication of the 2023 data is provisionally planned for winter 2025/26. We will announce the date of the 2024 data publication in due course.

The statistics have been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process.

The publication date for abortion statistics for England and Wales for 2023 has not been confirmed. This is because of delays, due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process.

Publication of the 2023 data is provisionally planned for winter 2025/26. We will announce the date for publication in due course.

Information is not held centrally on the number of local authorities in England that publish statistics on the number of autistic people in their area, and no estimate has been made.

In accordance with the Abortion Act 1967, all abortions in England must be notified to the Chief Medical Officer within 14 days of the procedure. This information is used by the Department to monitor compliance with the act. The Department also publishes this data in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, to ensure it is available to commissioners and providers of abortion services and others with an interest in abortion in England and Wales. There is no legal duty placed on the Department to publish data collected through abortion notification forms.

The Department regularly consults the Office for Statistics Regulation, which is the independent regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority, and provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the United Kingdom.

Data on triple negative breast cancer for England is collected through the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS). An NDRS Quality Assurance Team is in place to identify, investigate, and monitor data quality issues, with over 130 Quality Assurance reports being run each month as well as quarterly reports to assess the completeness of key data.

To drive up the completeness of the data for triple negative breast cancer, progesterone receptor status, human epidermal growth factor receptor in situ hybridization status, and oestrogen receptor status are part of the Cancer Outcomes and Services Data set, which supports national registration.