Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Lord Winston
Main Page: Lord Winston (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Winston's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
Bread and Flour Regulations 1998
Lord Winston Excerpts(1 week, 5 days ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Merron (Lab)
Patient safety is at the forefront of this. I do not want to look backwards, but I gently suggest that there are all sorts of reasons for delays. Still, we are where we are now, and what is important is moving ahead. We are working closely with the Chief Medical Officers across the UK. We are very much in lockstep with the devolved Governments, and I think that will also assist.
Lord Winston (Lab)
Given the Government’s excellent initiative to reduce the serious risk of neural tube defects, which cause such despair to so many people, will they tell us where we have got to with fluoride addition to the water supply to prevent dental disease?
Baroness Merron (Lab)
My noble friend is right, and we anticipate that this policy will reduce the number of neural tube defects in pregnancy by around 200 a year. Those are life-changing brain and spinal defects, such as spina bifida. The question about fluoridation goes a little wider than I had anticipated.