Folic Acid

Lord Rooker Excerpts

Wednesday 9th January 2019 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Rooker]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will commence their consultation on the mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid to prevent foetal abnormalities.

[Baroness Manzoor (Con)]

My Lords, the House will understand that this is not a straightforward matter. It requires a robust impact assessment to accompany the consultation to meet our obligations under the public sector equality duty. That work is under way and we will announce soon when in 2019 we expect the consultation to launch. I am sorry that I cannot be more precise today, but we hope to be in a position to announce this shortly.

[Lord Rooker (Lab)]

The Minister knows that the average consultation lasts about 12 weeks. The Government made a very welcome and positive statement on 22 October, but that was 12 weeks ago. Bearing in mind that she cannot answer the Question about the date, the key question that also needs to be answered is: will it be a UK-wide consultation? Two years ago, the Scottish Government decided not to go it alone—and they have a better case than England on the blood-level issue—because of the impracticalities of the integration of the bread and flour industries. Therefore, the consultation has to be UK-wide, and I understand that the devolved Governments have requested that it be such.

[Baroness Manzoor]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, for raising this issue. I am delighted that the consultation will take place, so there has been movement, as he rightly said. I place on record that I had a meeting with the Secretary of State this morning to raise this issue with him personally. Like me, he is passionate to ensure that the consultation happens as soon as possible, but it is important that we undertake the impact assessment. On the question that the noble Lord just put to me, due to the milling process it is of course important that we have a UK-wide consultation.