Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of upright MRI scanners in encouraging more women to undergo breast cancer scans.

The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has not reviewed the evidence to offer upright MRI scanners as a primary screen test in the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme (NHS BSP).

A change to the primary screen test would be considered as a major programme modification. Such a proposal can be submitted to the UK NSC for further consideration.

The NHS BSP offers screening to women using MRI who are high risk or very high risk as assessed by specialist genetics or oncology as being more at risk of developing breast cancer than women in general population. More information can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-breast-screening-high-risk-women