In the United Kingdom, screening is an end to end service from test to treatment. This is not necessarily the case in other countries such as the United States of America. Therefore, comparisons with other health systems can be misleading.

In April 2014, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recommended extending the newborn bloodspot screening programme to include four additional conditions: maple syrup urine disease; homocystinuria; glutaric acidaemia type 1; and isovaleric acidaemia. The newborn blood spot screening is currently offered to all babies to identify nine conditions, as recommended by the UK NSC.

The UK NSC welcomes any new topic proposals through its annual call for topics. Using research evidence, pilot programmes and economic evaluation, the UK NSC assesses the evidence for programmes against a set of internationally recognised criteria. To ensure that screening is offered where the balance of benefit outweighs the harms.

In August 2019, the UK NSC published Generation genome and the opportunities for screening programmes. The report reflects the specific opportunities identified by each of the 11 population screening programmes, including the antenatal and newborn screening programmes. The report concluded that the advances in genomic technologies present exciting and potentially effective developments for screening programmes. Current and developing research and technology will be used to determine how, in future, genetics can best be used in screening. A copy of the report is attached.

NHS England recognises the importance of delivering public health services, including screening, which people find easy to access. This is why the NHS Long Term Plan and detailed improvement actions are about ensuring services are easy and convenient for people to use in order to deliver the Long Term Plan ambition on cancer to see 55,000 more people surviving cancer for five years in England each year from 2028.

The actions plans include real-world case studies which have demonstrated improvements in local areas. These case studies sit alongside widely published evidence which has been proven to deliver improvements in uptake. We expect these actions to have a positive impact on the uptake of screening.

Sir Mike Richards’ Review of Screening report is due to be published shortly which will identify additional opportunities to improve the uptake of breast, bowel, and cervical screening. In addition, NHSX is looking at possible improvements to screening IT systems, which should support the delivery of cancer screening programmes.

NHS England is committed to improving the uptake of national cancer screening programmes, for breast, bowel, and cervical cancer.

In January, NHS England published its Long Term Plan, which outlined its ambition to deliver improvements in the uptake of national cancer screening programmes. To support this process, NHS England has developed improving uptake action plans, which can be used by providers and the wider health system, to improve the performance of screening programmes.

The uptake action plans include proposals for reviewing and extending appointment hours (for example for breast cancer screening) and using data to inform strategies for improving uptake in those populations of greatest need. These plans are already available to commissioning teams and will be updated and reissued throughout the year.

National Health Service regions are currently developing implementation plans to deliver on these commitments. To provide robust oversight and assurance of delivery, NHS England has established national programme boards for each cancer screening programme area.

In addition, we expect the Sir Mike Richards’ Review of Screening report, due to be published soon, to identify additional opportunities to improve the uptake of breast, bowel, and cervical screening.

Further, Public Health England has been running ‘Be Clear on Cancer’ campaigns since 2011. These are designed to raise the public’s awareness of specific cancer symptoms; encourage people with those symptoms to go to the doctor; and diagnose cancer at an earlier stage, and therefore make it more treatable, and thereby improve cancer survival rates.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The Government committed in the NHS Long Term Plan published in January to modernise the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP) to detect more cancers earlier. The plan will modernise the BCSP to detect more cancers earlier by lowering the starting age for bowel screening from 60 to 50.

Further, the Faecal Immunochemical Test was rolled out in England in June 2019 following a UK National Screening Committee recommendation to replace the previously used Faecal Occult Blood test. This test is both more accurate and more acceptable so will contribute to saving many more lives from bowel cancer and, as an easier test for patients to use, is expected to improve take up rates by 7%, including among groups with low participation rates such as men, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and people in more deprived areas.

In addition, we expect the Professor Sir Mike Richards’ Review of Screening, due to be published soon, to identify additional opportunities to improve the uptake of bowel cancer screening.

The United Kingdom National Screening Committee in 2017 considered an evidence review of screening for Vasa Praevia (VP). The review did not find sufficient evidence to support a change in the overall recommendation for VP screening. The 2017 review can be seen at the following link:

https://legacyscreening.phe.org.uk/vasapraevia

The NHS Long Term Plan sets out the ambition to extend the use of molecular diagnostics and, over the next 10 years, to routinely offer genomic testing to all people with cancer for whom it would be of clinical benefit.

NHS England is mobilising the Genomic Medicine Service which brings together existing clinical genetics services and the new genomic laboratory infrastructure. By consolidating genomic testing services into seven Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs), the National Health Service is able to operate more efficiently using cutting-edge high throughput technology and supporting make equitable access. The new service will enable additional genomic information to inform treatment and enable turnaround times to be kept to a minimum.

The turnaround times which are set out in the GLH service specification fall within the existing 62 day standard for receiving first treatment for cancer.

Information on the average time taken to receive cancer test results is not collected centrally.

NHS England publishes monthly performance data against the waiting times standards for diagnostic tests (not exclusive to cancer) and waiting times data of people referred by their general practitioner (GP) with suspected cancer and those subsequently diagnosed and treated for cancer.

Following publication of the interim People Plan on 3 June 2019, work is now underway to develop a full five-year NHS People Plan, which will support delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan. The full People Plan will build on the ambitions in the interim Plan, focusing on education and training, and new routes into the National Health Service, as well as workforce planning and redesign, and workforce productivity (releasing time for care).

Since publication of the Interim Plan, Health Education England and NHS Improvement and NHS England have been working together to ensure delivery of the immediate actions and have been working with stakeholders including the People Plan advisory group and trade unions, think tanks, academia, and professional bodies to develop the full People Plan. Work is also underway with national clinical programmes, including cancer and diagnostics, to understand their workforce priorities for delivering the Long Term Plan commitments, including addressing key workforce shortages.

Also, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England asked Sir Mike Richards to lead a review to improve the delivery of the screening programmes, increase uptake, learn the lessons from the recent issues around breast and cervical screening, and modernise and expand diagnostic capacity. Workforce requirements to support delivery of our national screening programmes are included in scope of Professor Sir Mike Richards review and we expect publication of the report shortly. The review, will make recommendations to the Secretary of State and Board of NHS England about the future commissioning and delivery of screening programmes in England.

Information on how many and what proportion of women with a disability have attended cervical cancer screening through the National Health Service is not held centrally by NHS England.

The latest uptake figures for cervical cancer screening show that 71.7% of the eligible population, or 3.2 million women, were screened for cervical cancer in 2017–18.

NHS England is continuously investing in initiatives to help ensure equality of access to screening and, through the public health functions agreement (S7a), NHS England aims to improve public health outcomes and reduce inequalities.

General practitioner practices are required to ensure that their premises are suitable for the delivery of essential and where appropriate additional services, and that they are sufficient to meet the reasonable needs of its patients, including those with disabilities. This involves making any reasonable adjustments necessary or making alternative arrangements such as referral to a specialist screening provider or undertaking the procedures in another setting that is more suitable given any limitations to a patient’s mobility. Where a patient requires specialist equipment, clinical staff will ensure that patients have access to its use in a safe environment.

As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England asked Sir Mike Richards to lead a review of the current cancer screening programmes. The review will be finalised in autumn 2019 and will make recommendations to further improve the delivery of the screening programmes, including the cervical screening. The Department will take forward the findings of the review once published.

Data on the number of women who undertook a second mammogram test after having an unclear result from the first test are not available in the format requested.

Data on the number of women diagnosed with cancers that are detected during the interval between routine scheduled breast screening appointments are not available in the format requested.

Data on the number of women who received an unclear result from a mammogram test and were asked to return for a further test are not available in the format requested.

Data on the number of women who undertook a second mammogram test after having an unclear result from the first test are not available in the format requested.

Data on the number of women diagnosed with cancers that are detected during the interval between routine scheduled breast screening appointments are not available in the format requested.

Data on the number of women who received an unclear result from a mammogram test and were asked to return for a further test are not available in the format requested.

Data on the number of women who undertook a second mammogram test after having an unclear result from the first test are not available in the format requested.

Data on the number of women diagnosed with cancers that are detected during the interval between routine scheduled breast screening appointments are not available in the format requested.

Data on the number of women who received an unclear result from a mammogram test and were asked to return for a further test are not available in the format requested.

NHS England has committed, in the Long Term Plan, to modernise bowel cancer screening by lowering the starting age from 60 to 50. NHS England is currently in the process of planning for delivery of the Long Term Plan commitment to modernise the Bowel Cancer Screening Programmes.

Professor Sir Mike Richards is considering the future position of bowel cancer screening as part of his independent review of adult screening, due to report in September. The timetable for extensions to the FIT bowel screening programme will be taken forward in the context of his recommendations.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.