Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure the provision of routine Strep B testing for all pregnant women in the UK; and if he will make representations to the National Screening Committee to assess the adequacy of its guidelines on screening.

Following the United Kingdom National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC’s) meeting in February 2017, the Department accepted the UK NSC’s recommendation that a population-based screening programme for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) carriage should not be offered. This is because there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the benefits to be gained from screening would outweigh the harms. Guidance on early onset neonatal GBS and other neonatal disease is provided by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is available at:

https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/guidelines-research-services/guidelines/gtg36/

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is available at:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg149/chapter/4-research-recommendations