To ask the Minister of Health when he will introduce official measurements of the number of miscarriages taking place across Northern Ireland.

As I have previously advised the member, the recording of miscarriage is a complex area. There is no central recording of pregnancy loss numbers or rates. Estimates are often used and applied to population figures to provide a population estimate as not all pregnancy losses will be known to healthcare providers.

Pregnancy loss may be recorded on a number of information systems including Trust Patient Administration Systems (PAS), GP clinical systems and NIMATS (Northern Ireland Maternity Systems). The Trust PAS will capture people who require hospital admission for management of pregnancy loss or ectopic pregnancy. Early Pregnancy Clinics will record attendance at a clinic but not the outcomes and not all those who attend will have a pregnancy loss confirmed. GP clinical information systems will record pregnancy loss – but only if the GP knows about it and this may not always be the case.

Any statistic could not therefore be reflective of the true number of miscarriages occurring and consequently I have no plans to introduce any official measurements.