Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of making Group B Strep a notifiable disease on the (a) prevention and (b) treatment of this infection in newborns.

Notifiable diseases, listed under schedule 1 of the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010, are kept under review by the Department and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The Government published a public consultation between 12 July and 15 November 2023, seeking views on proposed amendments to the regulations, including adding diseases to schedule 1 to make them notifiable.

Adding Group B Streptococcal (GBS) Infection to schedule 1 was not included in the consultation proposals, but a small number of respondents suggested it could be suitable for inclusion. A summary of responses to the consultation has been published. The Department and the UKHSA are considering the consultation responses, and confirmation of any changes to the regulations will be published in due course.

To increase awareness and understanding of GBS, NHS England published a revised Core Competency Framework in May 2023, which covers the mandated training for all maternity services, which now includes GBS. Undertaking this training will enable midwives and doctors to be better informed when speaking to families about the risk of GBS in labour. The Core Competency Framework is incentivised through the maternity incentive scheme administrated by NHS Resolution.