Guidance

Screening for Down’s syndrome, Edwards’ syndrome and Patau’s syndrome: non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT)

Operational guidance to support the offer of NIPT.

• From: NHS England
• Published: 26 April 2021
• Last updated: 8 October 2024
  Show all updates

  1. 8 October 2024

     Added clarification that publication was previously published by Public Health England.

  2. 6 October 2023

     2.2 North Thames GLH (Health Service Laboratory (HSL)) blood sampling and transport value has changed.

  3. 23 September 2021

     Added lower chance result letter templates.

  4. 14 May 2021

     Added information about screening safety incidents (section 9).

  5. 26 April 2021

     First published.

This publication was withdrawn on 22 April 2026

This publication has been superseded by Fetal anomaly screening programme handbook - GOV.UK and Fetal anomaly screening programme: standards - GOV.UK

Applies to England

Documents

[WITHDRAWN] Screening for Down’s syndrome, Edwards’ syndrome and Patau’s syndrome: NIPT

HTML

[WITHDRAWN] Experimental FASP NIPT metrics

HTML

[WITHDRAWN] NIPT screening request form: minimum data field requirements

ODT, 55.5 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

[WITHDRAWN] Lower chance result templates

HTML

Details

For health care professionals offering non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) screening for Down’s syndrome (T21), Edwards’ syndrome (T18) and Patau’s syndrome (T13).

Includes information on:

• eligibility for NIPT within NHS FASP
• laboratory requirements for NIPT
• blood sampling and transport
• reporting NIPT results

This publication was previously published by Public Health England, which closed on 30 September 2021.