To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will issue instructions to health authorities and consultants working for the national health service that no treatment is to be denied to patients on the grounds that they have Down's Syndrome. [3525]

National health service treatment is available to everyone on the basis of clinical need. The Department of Health issued guidance in 1992 on health services for people with learning disabilities (mental handicap), HSG(92)42, which made it clear that people with learning disabilities have the same rights of access to NHS services as everyone else.