Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to introduce a national strategy for the prevention of sudden cardiac death in children and young adults.

Following its last review of screening for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in young people (12-39 years old), during which a number of stakeholders were consulted, such as Cardiac Risk in the Young and the British Cardiovascular Society, the independent United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recommended in 2015 that screening should not be offered.

The UK NSC opened a three month public consultation on screening for SCD in 12 to 39 year olds on 7 June 2019. The consultation closed on 7 September 2019. The UK NSC will review comments received from the consultation at its meeting on 8 November 2019 and will make a recommendation to the Department as to whether screening for SCD should or should not be introduced, based on robust peer reviewed evidence.