Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase access to cardiac screening for young people with no prior symptoms of heart conditions.

In the United Kingdom, national screening programmes are introduced based on the recommendations of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent scientific advisory committee which advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries on all aspects of population and targeted screening and which supports implementation.

The UK NSC last reviewed screening for sudden cardiac death in people under the age of 39 years old in 2019, and concluded that population screening should not be offered. Further information is available at the following link:

https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/sudden-cardiac-death/

The UK NSC is currently examining the evidence for this condition and will open a public consultation to seek comments from members of the public and stakeholders on this in due course. Further information, including on how to keep up to date on the work of the UK NSC, is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-national-screening-committee