Target for cutting premature birthrate in England will not be met, minister says

Officials told the Lords’ preterm birth inquiry that the rate of premature deliveries was actually increasing. Photograph: Halfpoint Images/Getty Images

The women’s health minister has admitted there is no chance the government will meet its target of reducing the premature birthrate to 6% in England by 2025.

Preterm birth, when a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is the biggest cause of death among children under five in the UK. The previous government set a target in 2019 to reduce the preterm birthrate to 6% by 2025.