The National Health and Family Planning Commission has denied a report that China would be relaxing its family planning policy soon to allow couples with just one spouse from a one-child family to have a second child.

The commission said no new documents mandating such a change had been issued and there was no timetable for the issue of such a policy. But it also said the central government was discussing the issue.

Caixin.com had reported that the new policy was expected to be announced after the Third Plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee, which concluded on Tuesday.

The commission has announced that a nationwide follow-up survey on family development is expected to be launched in China starting in 2014.

The survey will track an average of 1,000 households across 30 provinces in order to better understand the country's population and family structure.

China's family planning policy was first introduced in the late 1970s to rein in the surging population by limiting most urban couples to one child and most rural couples to two children, if the first child born was a girl.

The policy was later relaxed, with the current policy stipulating that to have a second child, both parents must be only children.

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