Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to clarify governance arrangements for cancer screening between the NHS, Public Health England and his Department.

Officials from the Department and Public Health England have engaged with Professor Sir Mike Richards to ensure that his ongoing review gives consideration to the governance of all screening programmes.

The Terms of Reference for Professor Sir Mike Richards' Review include making recommendations, if needed, on how NHS England interacts with Public Health England and the Department to translate screening policy into implementation and on how screening programmes should be commissioned, delivered, performance managed and quality assured in the future.

Professor Sir Mike Richards published an interim report on 24 May on his emerging findings of the independent review of national screening programmes in England. However, the Government awaits the final recommendations which will be reported in summer 2019, and will consider these carefully, alongside the recommendations from the recent reports published by the Public Accounts Committee, the National Audit Office's investigation into screening and the national Cancer Strategy.

The findings of the review will be taken forward as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.