Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans routinely to offer screening tests for Group B Strep to pregnant women as part of their antenatal care.

The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is in the process of updating its evidence review into antenatal screening for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) in accordance with its published three year review cycle.

When the update is completed, a public consultation on the evidence review document will begin, and will remain open for a three month period.

The UK NSC will then review the recommendation for GBS, taking into consideration the outcomes of the public consultation and the evidence review, at the successive meeting.

More information and how to contribute to the public consultation will be available at the following link:

http://legacy.screening.nhs.uk/screening-recommendations.php