Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that funding allocated to breast cancer screening units is not diverted into the symptomatic pathway.

National Health Service breast screening services are commissioned with funds which are dedicated to the NHS Breast Screening Programme. The screening pathway at both the initial screening stage, and if further diagnostic testing is required, is conducted in clinics which only accommodate women who have attended invitations from the screening programme. Provision for women with symptoms is funded from other sources and via separate clinics.