Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2017 to Question 8626, when the Government plans to respond to the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition’s updated evidence on folic acid.

Ministers will set out their position on mandatory fortification in due course. The Secretary of State has received a joint letter from the Scottish Government’s Minister for Public Health and Sport and the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, sent on 1 December 2017, concerning mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid, and a response will be issued in the New Year.

No estimate has been made of the cost of implementing mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid.