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Public Health (England)

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way again. He knows that I share his worry about AAA; it is a very important issue on which I have done a fair amount of work. The problem is not the screening for abdominal aneurysm, which is a very simple ultrasound test, but putting in place the services that are needed—the vascular surgeons, follow-on care and intensive care beds. He is absolutely right that we could probably save 3,000 lives a year if we screened every man at the age of 60, but the problem is that it will take some time to train the vascular surgeons and put the facilities in place. I am fairly pleased that the Government are at least on the case, and I hope that they will introduce such an arrangement as soon as possible.