Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of including metachromatic leukodystrophy in the newborn blood spot test; and whether the UK National Screening Committee is expected to report on that issue.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has not yet reviewed the evidence for including metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) in National Health Service newborn blood spot screening. It was, however, sent a request to review the possibility of including the condition as part of its annual call for new screening topics, which it is currently evaluating.

Individuals can sign up to receive alerts when the UK NSC starts reviewing any new condition, including MLD, via the UK NSC website.