Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department has commissioned on the cost of screening young people at 14 years of age for cardiac abnormalities.

The Department has not commissioned research on the cost of screening young people at 14 years of age for cardiac abnormalities.

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including young sudden cardiac death (SCD).

The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises Ministers and the National Health Service in all four United Kingdom countries on all aspects of screening. The UK NSC last reviewed screening for SCD in 2015 and it was recommended that screening should not be offered. The UK NSC will review the evidence for screening for the major causes of SCD in young people between the ages of 12 to 39 years in 2018/19 as per its three yearly cycle.