Pregnancy Screening for Down’s Syndrome, Edwards’ Syndrome, and Patau’s Syndrome in Scotland
1 April 2019 to 31 March 2023
Official statistics in development
- Published
- 12 May 2026 (Latest release)
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
About this release
This is a planned revision of the 24 June 2025 release from Public Health Scotland (PHS) providing information on pregnancy chromosomal condition screening for Down's syndrome, Edwards' syndrome, and Patau's syndrome for women booking for antenatal care in Scotland from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2023.
The revision adds outcome data for women booking for antenatal care in 2022/23. This includes the number of women whose babies were confirmed with Down’s syndrome, Edwards’ syndrome and Patau’s syndrome, the accuracy of screening, and the pregnancy outcomes of women whose babies had these conditions. Some small additional amendments have also been implemented. These make very minor updates to the published data and are outlined in the main report.
Screening is offered to pregnant women as part of NHS antenatal care in Scotland. Screening aims to identify babies who may have one of the three chromosomal conditions. It is for individual women to make an informed choice whether or not to accept screening.
The publication provides information on:
- The provision and results of screening
- The provision of invasive prenatal diagnosis (IPD, that is, a diagnostic test provided during pregnancy that definitively confirms whether a baby has one of the three chromosomal conditions)
- The accuracy of the different pregnancy chromosomal condition screening tests
- The pregnancy outcomes of women whose baby had Down's syndrome, Edwards' syndrome, or Patau's syndrome.
More detail on potential developments for future versions of this release are available in the Planned developments section of the main report. We would be happy to receive any feedback on this report at phs.pnbsstats@phs.scot.
Background
The pregnancy chromosomal condition screening pathway changed for women booking for antenatal care in Scotland from 28 September 2020 onwards. More detail on the pathway change is provided in the main report. PHS is delivering a national evaluation of the 2020 changes, and this official statistics release has been developed as part of the evaluation.
Further information
Further information for women and their families making choices about pregnancy chromosomal condition screening is available from Antenatal Results and Choices, Down's Syndrome Scotland, and SOFT-UK.
The next release of this publication will be in March 2027.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Dr Rachael Wood at phs.pnbsstats@phs.scot.
Media enquiries
If you have a media enquiry relating to this publication, please contact the Communications and Engagement team.
Requesting other formats and reporting issues
If you require publications or documents in other formats, please email phs.otherformats@phs.scot.
To report any issues with a publication, please email phs.generalpublications@phs.scot.
Older versions of this publication
Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.