Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 April 2019 to Question 237733, what representations he has received on the capability of NHS urinary trace infection screening tests to detect bacteria hidden in the bladder's lining.

A search of the Department’s Ministerial correspondence database has identified four items of correspondence received on the capability of National Health Service urinary tract infection (UTI) screening tests to detect bacteria in the bladder's lining during the past 12 months. This figure represents correspondence received by the Department’s Ministerial correspondence unit only.

In November 2018 Public Health England published guidance on the diagnosis of UTIs. This guidance states that “no individual or combination (of symptoms or dipstick) are completely reliable in diagnosing UTI, thus severity of symptoms and safety-netting are important.”