Prostate Cancer: Screening

(asked on 9th February 2026) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure eligible men take up prostate cancer screening in Sutton Coldfield constituency.


Answered by
Sharon Hodgson Portrait
Sharon Hodgson
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 16th March 2026

There is currently no national prostate cancer screening programme. The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is an independent scientific advisory committee which advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries on all aspects of population and targeted screening and supports implementation. They recently closed a consultation on their draft recommendation to:

  • offer a targeted national prostate cancer screening programme to men with confirmed BRCA1/2 gene variants every two years, from 45 years old to 61 years old;
  • not recommend population screening;
  • not recommend targeted screening of black men;
  • not recommend targeted screening of men with family history; and
  • collaborate with the Transform trial team to answer outstanding questions on screening effectiveness for black men and men with a family history as soon as the trial data becomes available, and to await the results of the study to develop and trial a more accurate test than the prostate specific antigen test alone, to improve the balance of benefit and harm of screening.

The evidence that supports this draft recommendation can be found on the UK NSC prostate cancer recommendation page, at the following link:

https://nationalscreening.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/28/uk-nsc-opens-consultation-on-draft-prostate-cancer-screening-recommendation/

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