Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve new-born screening and genetic testing for fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.
There is no newborn screening programme for fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) using genetic testing and it is not currently being considered for a national screening programme. National population screening programmes are implemented on the advice of the United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC), which makes independent, evidence-based recommendations to Ministers in the four UK nations. Proposals to screen for new conditions, such as FOP, can be submitted to the UK NSC via its annual call for new topics, which closes on 6 December 2021.