Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the accuracy of the prostate-specific antigen testing programmes; and if he will make a statement.

No recent assessment has been made. In October 2022, the National Health Service published a ‘Best Practice Timed Pathway’ for suspected prostate cancer. This sets out guidance on the use of mpMRI prior to biopsy to improve the detection accuracy of clinically significant cancer and reduce the risk of unnecessary biopsy.

In the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on suspected cancer, NICE made a research recommendation on the diagnostic accuracy of prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing. A number of recommendations in the guideline on prostate cancer refer to PSA levels.