Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether and how they measure the effectiveness of advice given to women of child-bearing age planning a pregnancy according to their (1) socio-economic background, (2) ethnicity, and (3) regional location.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no specific measure on the effectiveness of advice given to women of child-bearing age planning a pregnancy.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are aware of any evidence of food manufacturers proposing to lower the level of voluntary folic acid fortification of foods.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fortification of food with folic acid is voluntary and there is no requirement to notify the Government when it is added or removed from a product. As such, the Government is not aware of any such industry considerations. The rules on fortification under existing legislation requires that where vitamins and minerals are added to food, it must be at a minimum level of 15% of the Nutrient Reference value in Retained Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 or 200 micrograms per 100 grams for folic acid.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the main nutrient deficiencies within the UK population; and whether they have carried out any analysis of any gender difference in that data.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) provides information on dietary intakes and nutritional status for males and females by age group. The latest data from the NDNS 2016 to 2019 shows that dietary intakes of most vitamins are adequate, however there is evidence of low dietary intakes of vitamin D and of some minerals including magnesium, potassium, iodine and selenium. Assessment of nutritional status in the NDNS shows low blood levels for vitamin D and folate across age and sex groups. Low dietary intakes and blood levels of iron are also seen in women and girls.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any trends in the last five years regarding the number of pregnancies terminated due to neural tube defects.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not collected in the format requested. Information on neural tube defects is collected by the number of mentions, rather than number of pregnancies terminated. It is possible for a pregnancy to have multiple neural tube defects. From 2017 to 2021, there were 4,697 mentions of congenital malformations of the nervous system in Ground E abortions for residents of England and Wales. This has remained stable over the last five years, other than a small decline in 2019. Data for 2022 is due to be published in June 2023.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of lifetime direct medical costs associated with births affected by neural tube defects compared to those unaffected; and why they cited German research in the consultation on Amending the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998, which ran from 1 September to 23 November, rather than UK research.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made. The consultation on amending the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 and the Bread and Flour Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 cited research from Germany, as a relevant academic study in the United Kingdom was not available.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of introducing a (1) Birth Defects Prevention Month, and (2) Folic Acid Awareness Week, similar to those in the United States.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made. However, the Government promotes the recommendation to take folic acid supplements to those who could become or are pregnant and other measures to promote good health in the first 1,000 days of life, through the Better Health Start for Life programme and via online National Health Service information.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether all regions of England are covered by the register of congenital anomaly cases.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Congenital Anomaly and Rare Disease Service collects data for all regions in England and the Crown Dependencies for births from 1 January 2018.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average prevalence of births affected by neural tube defects in countries applying food fortification with folic acid, compared to those who do not.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many births there have been in each of the last five years that were classed as (1) spina bifida, (2) hydrocephalus, and (3) anencephaly, caused by neural tube defects.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of births and birth prevalence for spina bifida, hydrocephalus and anencephaly caused by neural tube defects in 2018 and 2019. Data prior to 2018 is not available in the format requested. Data for 2020 will be published in December.
| Number of births in 2019 | Prevalence per 10,000 total births and 95% confidence interval in 2019 | Number of births in 2018 | Prevalence per 10,000 total births and 95% confidence interval in 2018 |
Spina bifida | 335 | 5.4 (4.9-6.1) | 336 | 5.3 (4.8-6) |
Hydrocephalus | 266 | 4.3 (3.8-4.9) | 242 | 3.9 (3.4-4.4) |
Anencephalus and similar | 317 | 5.2 (4.6-5.8) | 277 | 4.4 (3.9-5) |
Source: The National Congenital Anomaly and Rare Disease Registration Service
Note:
The denominator used to calculate prevalence is obtained from the Office for National Statistics and reflects all live and still births in 2018 and 2019. These figures are for England and the crown dependencies.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many blood samples connected to neural tube defects have been sent for analysis to the Centre for Disease Control in the United States in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme aims to detect neural tube defects through the 20-week screening scan rather than a blood sample.