Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of piloting targeted cardiac screening programmes for higher-risk groups of young people.

The Government is guided by the independent scientific advice of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). The UK NSC makes its recommendations based on internationally recognised criteria and a rigorous evidence review and consultation process. Where the committee is confident that offering screening provides more good than harm, they recommend a screening programme.

The UK NSC last reviewed screening for the conditions associated with sudden cardiac death in people under the age of 39 years old in 2019. The conclusion of that review was that population screening should not be offered, as research showed that current tests are not accurate enough to use on young people with no symptoms.

In the absence of an accurate enough test and an understanding of who to treat, cost-effectiveness modelling of a potential screening programme would not be informative.

It would not be ethically appropriate to pilot a screening programme in circumstances where the current screening test is not accurate enough.

The UK NSC will open a public consultation to seek comments from members of the public and stakeholders on screening for the conditions associated with sudden cardiac death this spring.