Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of recent scientific studies undertaken at Queens University Belfast that show assistance dogs can be trained to predict when people diagnosed with epilepsy may be facing a seizure.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that translates research into authoritative, evidence-based guidance for the health and care system. NICE will consider whether the new evidence on assistance dogs impacts on its guidance on the diagnosis and management of epilepsies.