Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the recent Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists audit which reported that more than half of all obstetric units tested some or all pregnant women for group B Streptococci using tests not designed specifically to detect group B Streptococci, what the Government's plans are to introduce Public Health England's recently updated UK Standards for Microbiology Investigations, B58 Detection of carriage of Group B Streptococci; and what the planned timescale is for that introduction.

Public Health England has advised the Department that the UK Standard for Microbiology Investigation (SMI) B58 Detection of Carriage of Group B Streptococci was published in June 2015 and is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/438182/B_58i3.pdf

SMIs are intended as a general resource for practising professionals operating in the field of laboratory medicine and infection specialties in the United Kingdom.

They represent neither minimum standards of practice nor the highest level of complex laboratory investigation possible, and are not mandatory. Laboratories can download and adapt the method into a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) based on local policies. SMIs help laboratories to meet accreditation requirements by promoting high quality practices which are auditable. UK microbiology laboratories that do not use SMIs should be able to demonstrate at least equivalence in their testing methodologies to the relevant accreditation body.

SMI B58 describes the examination of specimens to detect carriage of Group B streptococci (GBS). SMI B58 states that it does not seek to contradict clinical guidelines from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists or the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, or those of the UK National Screening Committee 2012 which did not recommend antenatal screening for GBS.