Written question asked by Lord Brady of Altrincham (Conservative) on Thursday, 27 November 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 10 December 2003. It was answered by Stephen Ladyman (Labour) on Wednesday, 10 December 2003 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is his Department's policy to make screening for Group B streptococcus routinely available to pregnant women in the United Kingdom.

Answer: Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether it is his Department's policy to make screening for Group B streptococcus routinely available to pregnant women in the United Kingdom. [141251] Dr. Ladyman: The current position is that routine screening for group B streptococcus (GBS) should not be offered to all pregnant women. The recently published National Institute for Clinical Excellence clinical guideline on antenatal care recommends that pregnant women should not be offered routine antenatal screening for GBS because evidence of its clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness remains uncertain. The UK National Screening Committee (NSC) is currently reviewing the position and has commissioned an assessment of the existing evidence on screening for GBS in pregnancy against criteria used to assess potential screening programmes to ensure they do more good than harm. The NSC considered a preliminary report of a workshop at its meeting this month and will consider the full report at its meeting in March 2004.

Secondary information