Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to standardise testing for coeliac disease by encouraging local audits of blood tests against endoscopies and biopsies.

Patients with a blood test which suggests a possible diagnosis of coeliac disease are usually referred for gastroscopy by their general practitioner. The British Society of Gastroenterology and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence have recommended standards for how patients with gastrointestinal symptoms are initially investigated in primary care, which includes testing for coeliac disease.