Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the average age at which children are diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

Information is not collected centrally on the age at which children are diagnosed with cerebral palsy and therefore no estimate of the average age of diagnosis has been made.

The age at which a diagnosis of cerebral palsy is made will depend on its severity and type. In some cases it will be diagnosed at birth other cases will be picked up through screening and monitoring.

Under the Healthy Child Programme schedule, babies undergo screening and health checks or immunisations at birth, at 72 hours, at five to eight days, at six to eight weeks, 12 weeks, 16 weeks, six to eight months and 12 months, 2½ years and at school entry.