Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of developing an annual mental and physical health screening programme.
Alongside national screening programmes for breast, bowel and cervical cancer, diabetic eye screening and abdominal aortic aneurism, the NHS Health Check for adults in England for those aged 40 to 74 years old aims to identify early signs of stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes or dementia.
The UK National Screening Committee has reviewed evidence for screening depression in adults and following pregnancy. However, the Committee did not recommend screening based on several factors, including the unreliability of the test.