Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she has made an assessment of the potential for using the (a) BOADICEA and (b) CanRisk models as the criteria for screening women under 50 for breast cancer.

Routine breast cancer screening starts for women at the age of 50 years old. Women under 50 years old are only offered screening if they are considered to be at high or very high risk. There are no current plans to change that criteria. The eligibility criteria for women in the Very High Risk programme includes the use of the online tool CanRisk. Further information on the Very High Risk programme and CanRisk is available at the following two links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/breast-screening-higher-risk-women-surveillance-protocols/tests-and-frequency-of-testing-for-women-at-very-high-risk--2#breast-cancer-brca-gene-carriers-and-equivalent-genetic-proven-risks#

https://canrisk.org/