Policy paper

How the Department of Health checks abortion notification forms

Explains how the Department of Health checks form HSA4, which notifies government about abortions in England and Wales.

• From: Department of Health and Social Care
• Published: 24 May 2011

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

Department of Health checks made on HSA4 forms for data quality and monitoring the abortion act

PDF, 67 KB, 10 pages

Details

The Abortion Act 1967 permits termination of pregnancy by a registered medical practitioner subject to certain conditions. Registered practitioners must submit an abortion notification form (HSA4) for every abortion they carry out. The Department of Health (DH) checks these forms to ensure that:

• its best practice guidance is followed
• abortion data comply with the National Statistics’ code of practice

This publication sets out how DH checks each part of the HSA4 form.

Published 24 May 2011