Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2015 to Question 3515, what evidence on costs the NHS considers before deciding to offer screening for genetic conditions; and if he will make a statement.

The UK National Screening Committee is the national advisory body, which advises Ministers and the National Health Service on all aspects of screening. It makes recommendations on which screening programmes should or should not be introduced based on robust analysis against a set of internationally recognised criteria. Screening should only be introduced where there is evidence that it will be both clinically and cost effective and do more good than harm. The economic evidence supporting the January 2015 expansion of the Newborn Blood Spot Screening Programme to include four new genetic conditions can be found at the following link:

http://www.screening.nhs.uk/policydb_download.php?doc=398