Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of women who are at a high or very high risk of breast cancer and who are waiting for risk reducing mastectomies as of 31 January 2022.

No estimate has been made of the number of women who are at a high or very high risk of breast cancer and who are waiting for risk reducing mastectomies.

The National Health Service is committed to recovering cancer services and to ensuring patients receive the best and most appropriate care.

At the beginning of the pandemic, NHS England asked the Federation of Surgical Speciality Associations to produce a guide on which surgery should be prioritised and the timescales for this. The current guidance states that risk reducing mastectomy surgery in gene carriers is a priority three procedure and should be carried out in under three months.