Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has for the future provision of genome testing in Newcastle following the decision to centralise genomic testing in Cambridge.

NHS England currently commissions genetic testing for National Health Service patients in England from 23 genetic laboratories. NHS England has no knowledge of the centralisation of funding for NHS genetic testing in Cambridge that is being referred to. Whole genome sequencing is being carried out in Cambridge by Illumina for the 100,000 Genomes Project.