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Bowel Cancer: Screening

Answer

The Government is determined to improve early diagnosis and timely treatment for bowel cancer, including in young adults.

The Government is increasing the sensitivity of faecal immunochemical tests for bowel cancer screening to catch more bowel cancers at an earlier stage. The increase in sensitivity, combined with increased uptake, will deliver 17,000 earlier diagnoses by 2035. The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme already offers people aged 50 to 74 years old screening every two years. The programme is undergoing several updates to its standards aimed at improving coverage, accessibility, and early detection. This includes updated performance thresholds, and improved accessibility of bowel cancer screening kits.

The Department will continue to support digital support tools to help flag concerning symptoms or test results to general practitioners for all cancers and age groups. As part of this, NHS England will pilot an incentive which encourages the use of electronic safety netting to increase the number of people who complete checks for bowel cancer.

The National Cancer Plan also commits to speeding up detection and diagnosis for children and young people with cancer, ensuring their needs are embedded in the design of neighbourhood health services, improving access to specialist support, and supporting the safe use of artificial intelligence-based decision tools.

Finally, local communities across England will benefit from major investment aimed at reducing cancer screening inequalities and catching more cancers early. The Government will close inequalities for ethnic minority communities and underserved communities, including for bowel cancer, through local awareness campaigns and our new Neighbourhood Early Diagnosis Fund, which is part of the £200 million for Cancer Alliances.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

3363

Session

2026-27

Subjects

Young people Screening Bowel cancer

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk