Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of trends in the number of women of child-bearing age taking folic acid supplements over the last five years.

Public Health England has not made an assessment of the impact of trends in folic acid supplement use in recent years. We continue to encourage women to take a folic acid supplement from before they are pregnant to the 12^th week of pregnancy, and include this in all appropriate public health messaging.