The Government has sought information from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s independent advertising regulator who ensure that advertising is legal, decent, and truthful. The ASA respond to concerns and complaints raised by the public, assessing them against relevant UK advertising codes and taking action to ban advertisements which are found to be misleading, harmful, offensive, or irresponsible. The ASA also monitor advertisements across different sectors to ensure they are compliant with relevant advertising codes and conduct research to assess public opinion and identify where action is necessary to protect consumers. As referenced in the Committee’s report, in November 2019 the ASA published a series of rulings against advertisements for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for genetic conditions because the presentation of ‘detection rates’ was misleading. The ASA subsequently published an Enforcement Notice directed at the advertising of NIPT services, setting out the guidance and telling companies to take immediate action to ensure their advertising complied. Companies were encouraged to avoid quoting “detection rate” figures. If advertisers still chose to use “detection rate” figures then they had to be accompanied by a robust Positive Predictive Value figure and an explanation of both terms. Advertisers were also told not to use the claim “diagnostic” to describe NIPT. The Enforcement Notice made clear that if issues continued, targeted enforcement action would be taken which can include referral to the relevant professional regulatory body or Trading Standards who can consider legal sanctions. The full Enforcement Notice can be found here: https://www.asa.org.uk/resource/enforcement-notice-nipt.html The ASA ensures the outcome of upheld rulings—such as for NIPT testing – are complied with. They have not yet received any further complaints regarding NIPT advertising but have reassured Government that they will carry out swift action if made aware of any non- compliance. They are considering carrying out a ‘compliance sweep’ of NIPT advertising within the next year, which involves actively monitoring advertising to ensure companies are compliant with UK advertising codes. If advertising is found to break the relevant advertising codes, the ASA will ask advertisers to withdraw or amend their adverts. The ASA have also informed Government that they will continue to carefully consider any evidence of non-compliance of advertising for DTC genomic tests and take action where necessary. The Government will keep this recommendation under review and is supportive of the ASA’s work in this area.