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Written question asked by Lord Rooker (Labour) on Friday, 18 November 2022, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Friday, 2 December 2022. It was answered by Lord Markham (Conservative) on Monday, 28 November 2022 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Neural Tube Defects

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the prevalence of births affected by neural tube defects in the UK; and what assessment they have made, if any, of how this figure compares with equivalent figures in other OECD member states.

Answer

Two neural tube defects, anencephaly and spina bifida, are screened for by the NHS Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme at the 20 week scan. In England and the crown dependencies, there were 752 births with neural tube defects in 2019 and a prevalence of 12.2 births per 10,000 total births.

The National Congenital Anomaly and Rare Disease Registration Service submits data to EUROCAT, the European network of population-based registries for the epidemiological surveillance of congenital anomalies. In 2019, the overall prevalence of neural tube defects for participating full registries across Europe, including full participating regions of England, was 11.36 per 10,000 births.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL3566
Session
2022-23
Subjects
OECD countries Childbirth Neural tube defects
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk