Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's timetable is for the national roll-out of non-invasive prenatal testing, as recommended by the UK National Screening Committee in November 2016.

The procurement for providers to undertake the evaluative roll out of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in England is currently being undertaken on behalf of Public Health England by NHS England as part of the Genomic Testing Services procurement.

There has been a legal challenge which relates only to the NIPT element of the current procurement which means that there is currently an automatic suspension in place. The extent of the delay will depend on how the litigation proceeds.