The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recommends screening for several conditions in pregnancy. The case for continuation or otherwise of these programmes is reviewed as per the UK NSC’s evidence review process, every three years or earlier should any significant new evidence emerge.

In November 2014, the UK NSC recommended that screening for pre-term birth should not be offered as the available screening test is not reliable. The UK NSC will review the evidence for preterm labour again in 2017/18.

Women are offered a minimum of two ultrasound scans during their pregnancy to screen for physical (structural) abnormalities in their unborn babies. The first scan usually takes place between 10 to 14 weeks, with a second scan for fetal anomalies at around 18 to 21 weeks. This scan can detect a large range of problems including some affecting the heart and abdomen. Early treatment after birth for these can help save a baby’s life.

A final decision has yet to be taken on the sensitivity threshold for the faecal immunochemical test on its introduction to the bowel cancer screening programme in April 2018. Setting the threshold will require the balancing of a number of different factors, including how endoscopy capacity is affected.

In current NHS England commissioning practice, testing for Lynch syndrome in people with colorectal cancer is targeted using criteria based on family history and age of cancer onset to determine people at high risk.

New National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance recommends extending this offer to all people with colorectal cancer when they are first diagnosed. Offering tests to all people with colorectal cancer will need to be considered by NHS England as part of its policy development process. Each year, a number of new drugs, medical devices, tests and treatments in specialised services are put forward to NHS England. The promising proposals are considered by experts in the field, including doctors, public health experts and lay people. These groups, established by NHS England, are known as Clinical Reference Groups (CRGs). The CRGs make detailed assessments of the new treatments, tests and devices through Policy Working Groups.

The NICE guidance has been sent to the Genetic Medicine CRG and they have been asked to submit a Preliminary Policy Proposal and to identify a Clinical Lead for progressing the proposal.

Consideration of the commissioning position and any financial implications will only be discussed once the proposal has been rigorously assessed.

A final decision has yet to be taken on the sensitivity threshold for the faecal immunochemical test on its introduction to the bowel cancer screening programme in April 2018. Setting the threshold will require the balancing of a number of different factors, including how endoscopy capacity is affected.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes MP) on 10 March 2017 to Question 66349.

Asylum seeking children can arrive or be encountered in the UK in a variety of ways. The full policy and guidance for processing such claims is set out in the Processing Children’s Asylum Claims instruction which is published:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/537010/Processing-children_s-asylum-claims-v1.pdf

When an asylum seeking child is encountered they will undergo a welfare interview in order to record their basic information and identify any immediate welfare concerns. Those unaccompanied children who are unable to travel to the Asylum Intake Unit in Croydon are able to register their claim and undergo a welfare interview at the nearest available Home Office location. It is not possible to determine how many unaccompanied asylum seeking children have had welfare interviews in different locations without an examination of individual records which could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.

In July 2016 the Government significantly increased the funding it provides to local authorities who look after UASC. Local authorities now receive £41,610 per annum year for each unaccompanied asylum-seeking child aged under 16 and £33,215 per annum for unaccompanied asylum-seeking child aged 16 and 17. This represents a 20% and 28% increase in funding respectively.

Asylum seeking children can arrive or be encountered in the UK in a variety of ways. The full policy and guidance for processing such claims is set out in the Processing Children’s Asylum Claims instruction which is published:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/537010/Processing-children_s-asylum-claims-v1.pdf

When an asylum seeking child is encountered they will undergo a welfare interview in order to record their basic information and identify any immediate welfare concerns. Those unaccompanied children who are unable to travel to the Asylum Intake Unit in Croydon are able to register their claim and undergo a welfare interview at the nearest available Home Office location. It is not possible to determine how many unaccompanied asylum seeking children have had welfare interviews in different locations without an examination of individual records which could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.

In July 2016 the Government significantly increased the funding it provides to local authorities who look after UASC. Local authorities now receive £41,610 per annum year for each unaccompanied asylum-seeking child aged under 16 and £33,215 per annum for unaccompanied asylum-seeking child aged 16 and 17. This represents a 20% and 28% increase in funding respectively.

Asylum seeking children can arrive or be encountered in the UK in a variety of ways. The full policy and guidance for processing such claims is set out in the Processing Children’s Asylum Claims instruction which is published:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/537010/Processing-children_s-asylum-claims-v1.pdf

When an asylum seeking child is encountered they will undergo a welfare interview in order to record their basic information and identify any immediate welfare concerns. Those unaccompanied children who are unable to travel to the Asylum Intake Unit in Croydon are able to register their claim and undergo a welfare interview at the nearest available Home Office location. It is not possible to determine how many unaccompanied asylum seeking children have had welfare interviews in different locations without an examination of individual records which could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.

In July 2016 the Government significantly increased the funding it provides to local authorities who look after UASC. Local authorities now receive £41,610 per annum year for each unaccompanied asylum-seeking child aged under 16 and £33,215 per annum for unaccompanied asylum-seeking child aged 16 and 17. This represents a 20% and 28% increase in funding respectively.

In 2015 the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) reviewed the evidence for screening for major causes of sudden cardiac death in young people between the ages of 12 to 39 and recommended that screening should not be offered.

The UK NSC will review the evidence again in 2018/19 or earlier if any new peer reviewed evidence emerges in the meantime.

Where the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not recommend screening for a particular condition, the evidence is reviewed again in three years as part of its regular review cycle. The next evidence review for atrial fibrillation is expected to commence in 2017/18.

If any new published peer reviewed evidence emerges before the upcoming review, which may change the current recommendation, individuals or organisations may alert the UK NSC to this.

The current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance recommends genetic cascade testing for familial hypercholesterolaemia as highly cost effective. This guidance is currently under review, due to be issued in May 2017, and will take into account the latest changes to the costs of drugs and genetic tests in its revised economic modelling.

NHS England and Public Health England are working to raise the profile of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) and break down the barriers to genetic testing. Specifically, FH is emphasised in the NHS England Prevention aide memoire to support Sustainability and Transformation Planning, which is available at:

www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/stp-aide-memoire-prevention.pdf

NHS England’s National Clinical Director for heart disease chairs an FH steering group which comprises representatives from relevant stakeholder organisations, including Public Health England. This group, with funding from the British Heart Foundation, has established FH specialist nurses in many areas of England, aimed at increasing FH cascade testing across the country so that more affected families can be identified. The steering group aims to develop a systems approach to the detection and management of FH.

One third of England is now covered by these FH nurses as well as cascade testing, and over the last three years more than 1,000 new people with FH have been identified.

Software to support cascade testing and provide a database for FH is available and will be increasingly used in England as FH services are established.

NHS England has also identified FH as a possible condition that it could focus on as part of the work looking into personalised medicine and how the NHS might make better use of increased genetic testing.

Finally, a cholesterol test is included as part of the NHS Health Check that is mandated by the Health and Social Care Act for delivery across all local authorities in England. Revised NHS Best Practice Guidance published in February now includes strengthened guidance for detection of FH as part of the NHS Health Check. Every patient with a cholesterol test result above 7.5mmol/l (as per National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance) will be alerted to their general practitioner for consideration of FH in combination with other diagnostic criteria.

This information is not held by the Department or NHS England, as general practice and pharmacy contracts do not mandate pulse checks as part of the existing enhanced services for people over 65.

In England, however, all local authorities are required to offer the NHS Health Check programme, with the large majority commissioning general practice to provide them on their behalf. Between 2014 and 2018, over 15 million people aged 40 – 74 are, have been or will be eligible for an NHS Health Check. The programme’s best practice guidance recommends that a pulse check is carried out as part of the process of taking a blood pressure reading and that those individuals who are found to have an irregular pulse rhythm should be referred for further investigation.

The researchers involved in National Institute for Health Research project HTA 14/141/01 are currently considering how to disseminate their findings most effectively. As a result, the project findings will not be available in spring 2017. Further information will be available when the publication timeline is clarified.

The trends in NHS Health Check in England are assessed every quarter, using data submitted by local authorities. These trends are published at:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/nhs-health-check-detailed/data

Cost-benefit modelling estimates the cost of the programme to be £332 million each year at full roll out with the average annual benefit to be £3.678 billion. The estimated savings to the National Health Service budget nationally are around £57 million over four years, rising to £176 million over a 15-year period. The National Institute for Health Research has launched a call for applications to review the health gain and cost effectiveness of the NHS Health Check.

The information for this assessment is not held centrally. It is for local clinicians to decide what treatment is most appropriate for their patients.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes MP) on 10 March 2017 to Question 66349.

There are no current plans to introduce specific screening for brain injury within the secure estate for adults. If as part of the general health screen, an adult presents with what is suspected to be a brain injury, a specialist neurological referral would be made.

All children and young people (under 18) within the Secure Estate for Children and Young People are screened for brain injury through part 5 of the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool.