2023 abortion statistics now 10 months late

A government minister or a higher-up in the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID) must have decided that timely publication of Abortion Statistics is a waste of time and resource, what other reason is there for a further delay of ten months for this annual report? Parliamentary Questions need to be asked, again.

UPDATE 01 November 2025: Still no abortion statistics for England and Wales in 2023 from OHID, however BPAS, the largest NHS-contracted provider, has published its audited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025, which includes 109,000 abortions paid for by the NHS.

The OHID, last published accredited official statistics for England and Wales in May 2024 for the YE December 2022.[i] In past years, OHID published annual statistics in the June following the end of the reporting period, so e.g., the 2021 statistics were published on 21 June 2022.[ii] The 2022 report was eleven months later than expected and since we are still awaiting the 2023 report, that is now fifteen months later than the prior years’ scheduled date of June 2024.

On 18 December 2023, Lord Markham, on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), answered a written question from Lord Jackson of Peterborough, saying:

“The publication of the abortion statistics for England and Wales for 2022 has 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.[iii]

On 08 January 2024, Lord Markham answered another of Lord Jackson’s questions, saying:

“Publication of the 2022 statistics has been delayed due to a number of significant reasons, including issues associated with moving to a new data processing system, ongoing technical issues with the aspects of the system, and a significant increase in the number of paper HSA4 forms being submitted. Other factors that have delayed publication of the full 2022 statistics include an increased workload following the introduction of longer paper and electronic forms to collect additional information about medical abortion following the amendment of the Abortion Act in 2022 to permit home use of early medical abortion pills up to 10 weeks gestation.[iv]

These are good reasons to explain the delay in publishing the 2022 statistics, it is reassuring to know that the DHSC has been implementing these systems, process, and resourcing improvements.

The 2022 annual report was published online in May 2024.

In his answers, Lord Markham gave assurances that the work on the analysis of the 2023 statistics would follow immediately after publication of the 2022 report. Given the eleven months of delay taken to make all of the improvements listed by Lord Markham, one might reasonably have expected the analysis and publication of the 2023 report to then take just the previously set period of six months, resulting in publication by November 2024.

But no; we are now some ten months beyond that restated due date of November 2024 and still the OHID has made no public announcement on when we should expect publication. One might be able to excuse OHID’s lack of timely delivery if other related reports were also delayed, but as I noted in this recent post, Public Health Scotland has published its December 2024 statistics, the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency has published its statistics up to March 2024, and each of the three large independent providers in England and Wales have published their statistics for the year 2024 [v] – and still we wait on OHID publishing for 2023 – ten months late after resetting the clock – Parliamentary Questions need to be asked, again.

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[i] Abortion statistics for England and Wales: 2022. (2025, April 9). GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/abortion-statistics-for-england-and-wales-2022

[ii] Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. (2024, December 31). Abortion statistics in England and Wales. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/abortion-statistics-for-england-and-wales

[iii] Written questions and answers – Written questions, answers and statements – UK Parliament. (2023, November 28). https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-11-28/HL661

[iv] Written questions and answers – Written questions, answers and statements – UK Parliament. (2023, December 18). https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-12-18/HL1275

[v] Duffy, K. (2025, August 31). 300,000 abortions per year in the UK. Percuity. https://percuity.blog/2025/08/31/300000-abortions-per-year-in-the-uk/