Scottish Screening Committee minutes: FOI release

Information requested

• Scottish Screening Committee meeting minutes to be published quicker than the current timeframe.
• Copies of the SSC minutes up to November 2019.
• Names of governing groups for the pregnancy and newborn screening programme, NIPT evaluation and if minutes are published online.

Response

• Scottish Screening Committee meetings are held at least three times a year. At each meeting, members are asked to review minutes from the previous meeting. Minutes are cleared for publication once members are content that they accurately reflect the discussion. The whole process has been streamlined to make the minutes available in the public domain at the earliest opportunity possible.
• All of the information you have requested on the Scottish Screening Committee minutes is available from the search facility on the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
• The Scottish Screening Committee (SSC) oversees all six national screening programmes, including pregnancy and newborn screening. SSC minutes are available on the Scottish Government website and can be accessed using the link provided above. The National Screening Oversight Board (NSOB) oversees the quality and effectiveness of all six national screening programmes, including pregnancy and newborn screening. The Pregnancy & Newborn Screening (PNBS)programme and the Monitoring and Evaluation Group (MEG) monitor key performance indicators for all aspects of the PNBS programme. The MEG reports to the PNBS programme board, which in turns provides programme assurance to the NSOB. MEG, Pregnancy and Newborn Screening Programme Board or NSOB minutes are not published online. A quantitative evaluation of the implementation of Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in the pregnancy and newborn screening programme is being undertaken by Public Health Scotland. The evaluation is funded by the Scottish Government and is supported by a stakeholder group. The evaluation runs until 2025/26. Key outputs from the evaluation will include new official statistics on antenatal screening for fetal trisomy which will be published by Public Health Scotland, and final overall results which will be submitted by the Public Health Scotland evaluation team for peer reviewed publication. These outputs will be discussed with the stakeholder group and reported to the Pregnancy and Newborn MEG and Programme Board as they become available.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.