Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to develop and support the cancer screening programme.

The NHS Cancer Screening Programmes screen millions of people each year in order to detect cancer or abnormalities which could develop into cancer if left undetected and untreated. They are supported by a national co-ordinating team and regional quality assurance teams in Public Health England (PHE).

On the specific programmes, NHS England and PHE are working together to set up screening centres for Bowel Scope Screening (BSS) for 55 year-olds as an addition to the current NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. Our commitment is to have BSS rolled out to 60% of screening centres in England by the end of March 2015, and to all screening centres in England by the end of 2016. In addition, as part of the original programme, PHE are piloting a new form of home testing kit (faecal immunochemical testing - FIT) which is easier to use and potentially more accurate than the current faecal occult blood (FOB) test used in the programme.

The NHS Breast Cancer Screening Programme has developed considerably with the use of digital mammography in screening clinics and the extensions to the age range for screening women, including the current randomised controlled trial screening 47-49 and 71-73 year-old women. Around 97.1% of women who have had invasive breast cancer detected by screening are alive five years later and over three quarters of the women whose cancer is detected by the programme do not need chemotherapy.

The NHS Cervical Screening Programme is currently piloting the use of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing as the primary screen for cervical disease in order to achieve better, more personalised outcomes for women. Through early detection and treatment the NHS Cervical Screening Programme can prevent around 75% of cervical cancers developing; where an early cancer is found, women with cervical cancer diagnosed by screening have a better chance of being cured than those who present with symptoms.

All NHS screening programmes are based on National Screening Committee recommendations using the best evidence available.