Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the Public Health England budget was spent on awareness campaigns to encourage more women to take up their invitation to a breast cancer screening in (a) 2015-2016 and (b) 2016-2017.

The Be Clear on Cancer Breast Cancer campaign, which targets women over 70, does not directly encourage uptake of screening but instead aims to increase awareness of both the age-related risk of developing breast cancer and the symptoms that women need to be aware of.

The campaign has run three times at a national level (from February to March 2014; from July to September 2015; and is currently live, running from February to March 2018).

The public facing leaflet for the Be Clear on Cancer campaign contains information on the screening programme and informs women over 70 that they are able to self-refer for screening.

Public Health England has not run a specific campaign to encourage more women to take up their invitation to a breast cancer screening.