5. Mr Allister asked the Minister of Health to outline why data is not published in relation to abortions in Northern Ireland, similar to the statistics published for England and Wales. (AQO 559/22-27)

I thank the Member for his question. The Department will publish comprehensive data relating to abortions in Northern Ireland on 20 June this year. It will cover the three-year period from the introduction of the Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations on 31 March 2020 to 31 March 2023.

My understanding is that the Department's annual publications had under-reported the number of abortions in Northern Ireland since the law was changed in 2020. That is recognised, and, although the accurate totals have been disclosed regularly through Assembly questions for written answer, I assure the Member that they will be corrected in the forthcoming publication for each of the three reporting years.

The issue arose because the methodology in place prior to the law change was set up to capture only those procedures involving hospital admissions. However, since the introduction of the 2020 abortion regulations, the majority of abortions in Northern Ireland are early medical abortions and take place in an outpatient setting.

Following an instruction from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to the Department on 2 December 2022 to formally commission abortion services, a process has been under way to verify up-to-date statistics from the date of the law change in Northern Ireland. Those are the statistics that will be published later this month.

It is concerning to hear about under-reporting, considering 8,000 have been reported in the figures already. Will the Minister assure me that we will now see the sort of data that we see from England and Wales, which indicates the age of the mother and the medical cause? England and Wales publish whether it is related to Down's syndrome, spina bifida or something else. Will all of those things now appear? It is important that people know how many babies with spina bifida or Down's syndrome are being killed in the womb.

I assure the Member that, as is the case with all abortion publications in England, Wales and Scotland, the forthcoming publication for abortions in Northern Ireland will provide a breakdown of abortions by age; by health and social care trust; by the statutory grounds for abortion, which will be based on the Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations 2020; by gestation; and by method of abortion.

Minister, do you have plans to bring abortion services in Northern Ireland into line with those in England, Scotland and Wales by fulfilling regulation 8 of the Abortion (No. 2) Regulations 2020 regarding telemedicine?

I thank the Member for her question. Unfortunately, as I said, being just under two weeks into the role, there are some areas that I have not yet had the opportunity to have a detailed briefing on from senior officials in the Department of Health or, indeed, from arm's-length bodies, some of the royal colleges or the British Medical Association. I am not in a position to make a definitive statement to the Member on that issue, but she has put it on my radar. I will consult, reflect and decide in due course.