All meetings held with the Scottish Abortion Care Providers Network: FOI release

Information requested

Please provide details of all meetings held with the Scottish Abortion Care Providers Network, including minutes and correspondence, since 1 January 2017.

Please provide details of any analysis undertaken or commissioned by the Scottish Government with regard to women in Scotland seeking an abortion after 16 weeks of pregnancy.

Please provide data on the number of women in Scotland who have undergone an abortion after 16 weeks of pregnancy outside Scotland since 2017.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested at Annex B – this relates to the first and second parts of your request.

In relation to the second part of your request, the Scottish Government has discussed with NHS Boards on a number of occasions options for increasing provision of later stage abortion services in Scotland. However, while we have gathered information on Boards’ services and discussed with them some of the issues faced, we have not specifically undertaken or commissioned an analysis of this. You may however find the following paper relevant:

https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/17036224/Access_to_and_
Experience_of_Later_Abortion_Accounts_from_Women_in_Scotland.pdf

In relation to the third part of your request, the Scottish Government does not have data on the number of women in Scotland who have undergone an abortion after 16 weeks of pregnancy outside Scotland since 2017. This is because the Scottish Government does not collect data on abortions itself; while Public Health Scotland does collect this data and we do review the statistics they produce, it only does so in relation to abortions provided in Scotland. However, the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales for recent years are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/abortion-statistics-for-england-and-wales - Table 12c) in the data tables gives numbers of Scottish residents having abortions in England and Wales each year within gestation bands. This may be helpful. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that we do not hold the information requested.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under sections 29(1)(a) (policy in development), 30(c) (prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs), and 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why those exemptions apply are explained in Annex A to this letter.

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FOI - 202200299139 - Annexes

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50 page PDF

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1.5 MB