Cancer: Screening
(asked on 30th January 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of women who (a) have and (b) do not have multiple sclerosis attended (i) cancer screening appointments, (ii) mammograms and (iii) cervical screening appointments in each of the last five years.
National Health Service screening programmes do not collect data on an individual’s long-term condition, and therefore no data is available on what proportion of women who have multiple sclerosis, participate in cancer screening programmes.
Under the Equality Act 2010, and the Health and Social Care Act 2012, NHS screening providers have a legal duty to make sure screening services are accessible to everyone, including people with long term conditions, who may have issues with access.
The following table provides data on the percentage of coverage for the three cancer screening programmes, breast, cervical and bowel, within the age groups invited for NHS screenings, in England over the last five years:
| 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Breast Screening – ages 50 to 71 years old | 74.9% | 74.6% | 74.2% | 64.2% | 65.3% | 66.4% |
Cervical Screening – ages 25 to 64 years old | 71.4% | 71.9% | 72.2% | 70.2% | 69.9% | 68.7% |
Bowel Screening – ages 60 to 74 years old | 59.2% | 59.5% | 60.5% | 64.3% | 66.1% | 70.3% |
Note: Data for bowel cancer screening is not separated based on sex.