# The Nursing and Midwifery Council (Midwives) Rules Order of Council 2004, Paragraph 9


(1) A practising midwife shall keep, as contemporaneously as is reasonable, continuous and detailed records of observations made, care given and medicine and any form of pain relief administered by her to a woman or baby.
(2) The records referred to in paragraph (1) shall be kept—
(a) in the case of a midwife employed by an NHS authority, in accordance with any directions given by her employer;
(b) in any other case, in a form approved by the local supervising authority covering her main area of practice.
(3) A midwife must not destroy or permit the destruction of records which have been made whilst she is in attendance upon a woman or baby.
(4) Immediately before ceasing to practise or if she finds it impossible or inconvenient to preserve her records safely, a midwife shall transfer them—
(a) if she is employed by an NHS authority, to that authority;
(b) if she is employed by a private sector employer, to that employer;
(c) if she is not covered by paragraph (a) or (b), to the local supervising authority in whose area the care took place.
(5) Any transfer under paragraph (4) must be duly recorded by each party to the transfer.
(6) For the purposes of this rule—
“NHS authority” means:
(a) in relation to England and Wales, any body established under the National Health Service Act 1977 or the National Health Service & Community Care Act 1990 which employs midwives;
(b) in relation to Scotland, any body constituted under the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 which employs midwives;
(c) in relation to Northern Ireland, any body established under the Health & Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 which employs midwives;
“private sector employer” means an organisation other than an NHS authority or a limited company or partnership in which the midwife or any member of her family has or has had a substantial interest.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/1764/schedule/1/paragraph/9 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/nursing-and-midwifery-council-midwives-rules-order-of-council-2004/schedule-1/paragraph-9
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.