Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his Department's policy is on mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid.

The Government is convinced that increasing folic acid intake of women who are either planning to get pregnant or are pregnant is the right course for the health and development of the unborn baby. It has therefore looked carefully at the evidence for mandatory fortification of flour. On balance, the Government decided that this is not the right way forward and therefore has no plans to introduce it for England. The Government recommends that, whatever their age, women who are either planning to get pregnant, or who are pregnant, should take a 400 microgram folic acid supplement before and during the early days of pregnancy.