Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to remove barriers to attending breast cancer screening.

Steps being taken to remove barriers to attending breast cancer screening in the United Kingdom include continuation of investment in and promoting the use of text message alerts to remind women of upcoming appointments, rolling out local and national media campaigns to raise awareness of the breast screening programme as required and development of improved inclusive information for women.

Evidence demonstrates that continued investment in mobile breast screening units, which the Government supports, is the best way to increase capacity in breast screening while also improving access and addressing health inequalities. As such we have invested £10 million for breast screening units to deliver 29 new breast cancer screening units, 58 remote access upgrades and nearly 70 life-saving service upgrades.