Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he expects the trial to compare universal screening for Group B Strep carriage in late pregnancy with usual risk-based care to be completed in advance of UK National Screening Committee's guidance review on Group B Strep in 2019-20.

The trial to compare universal screening for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) carriage in late pregnancy with usual risk-based care is not expected to be complete until the end of 2021 at the earliest. We anticipate that the UK National Screening Committee’s scheduled triennial review on GBS will not commence until the findings of the trial are known.