Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government will recognise July as International Group B Strep Awareness Month; and what progress has been made on improving (a) prevention and (b) awareness of group B streptococcus .

The Department continues to support awareness of Group B streptococcus, alongside the wider international community.

Group B streptococcus is the leading cause of bacterial infection in newborn babies. The Government has recognised there are gaps in the evidence relating to this issue and the National Institute for Health Research has commissioned a trial to compare the clinical and cost effectiveness of universal screening compared with usual risk-based care, which will help to understand more about the potential benefits and harms of this approach.

This is a large-scale and ambitious trial, the results of which will be of interest to the United Kingdom National Screening Committee and will form one piece of the developing evidence picture to inform its future recommendations for screening for Group B streptococcus.