Pregnancy: Neural Tube Defects

Lord Turnberg Excerpts

Monday 21st December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, when my noble friend says that this House is almost unanimously agreed she may well be right. However, the decision on this matter has to be taken in the other House. As I said, my honourable friend Jane Ellison, the Minister for Public Health, is going to come to a decision very quickly.

[Lord Turnberg (Lab)]

My Lords, we seem to have been for ever on this particular question. There is an irrational fear that somehow it is dangerous to fortify flour, and this has held up people in some way or other. But scientifically that does not bear fruit. It is clear from all the experience around the world of many years of fortifying flour with folic acid that it does work. We should be doing it here now.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, I am certainly not going to argue on clinical grounds with the noble Lord, who knows far more about this than I do. However, the issues are not purely clinical; they are to do with the mass medication of the whole population to reach a very small minority of women of child-bearing age. There are also some administrative issues to do with making sure that people do not take too much folic acid, as some cereals have folic acid added to them. However, I understand exactly what the noble Lord is saying, and can only repeat that the Minister for Public Health is reviewing this now.