Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the efficacy of using BRCA gene testing techniques to diagnose certain types of cancers.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) clinical guideline on familial breast cancer, published in June 2013, recommends that women with breast or ovarian cancer should be offered genetic testing if their combined BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carrier possibility is 10% or more.

NICE clinical guidelines represent best practice and we expect National Health Service organisations in England to take them fully into account in designing services to meet the needs of their local populations.