The UK government will “intervene directly” to ensure abortion is made widely available in Northern Ireland following the Assembly elections in May.

In a written ministerial statement on Thursday the Northern Secretary, Brandon Lewis, said regulations were being prepared which would give London the necessary powers to directly commission an abortion regime if Belfast continues to fail to do so.

These include placing a duty on the North’s Department of Health to make abortion available “as soon as reasonably practicable” and removing the need for cross-community approval from Northern ministers, which has blocked their establishment.

Mr Lewis said on Thursday it was “unacceptable that access to basic abortion healthcare is not available [in Northern Ireland] as it is across the rest of the UK” and he had a legal obligation to intervene.