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 8 May 2019 to Question 251992, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of proactively offering 36-week ultrasound scans to identify breech babies.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for providing authoritative, evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service. The NICE clinical guideline on antenatal care was published in 2008 and states that fetal presentation should be assessed by abdominal palpation at 36 weeks or later. The guideline also states that evidence does not support the routine use of ultrasound scanning after 24 weeks of gestation and therefore should not be offered.

The evidence considered by NICE in developing its recommendations can be found in NICE’s full guideline at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg62/evidence/full-guideline-pdf-196748323

However, NICE is currently updating this guideline, including its recommendations relating to monitoring fetal growth and wellbeing and expects to publish final updated guidance in December 2020 with a public consultation in summer 2020.