Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of additional endoscopists that will be required to deliver the Government’s commitment to lower the bowel screening age to 50.

NHS England has committed over time to lowering the starting age for bowel screening from 60 to 50 years of age. Information to assess the number of additional endoscopists required to deliver this commitment is not currently available centrally.

NHS England is currently in the process of planning for delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan commitment to modernise the Bowel Cancer Screening Programmes. The first phase of the plan is the replacement of guaiac Faecal Occult Blood Test kit with the more sensitive Faecal Immunochemical Test for haemoglobin from summer 2019; local teams are developing services, including the workforce plans, ready for its implementation.