Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing regular checks to screen everyone over 40 years old for certain health conditions.

The existing NHS Health Check programme aims to prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cases of dementia and kidney disease among adults aged between 40 to 74 years old. NHS Health Checks are offered to eligible people every five years. National Health Service screening programmes for those aged over 40 years old aim to identify healthy people who may have an increased chance of a particular disease or condition.

Women are routinely offered breast screening from their 50^th to 71^st birthday and cervical screening from the age of 24.5 to 64 years old. Bowel cancer screening is routinely available to everyone aged 60 to 74 years old, with the NHS currently implementing this screening for those aged between 50 to 74 years old. There are also regular eye checks for people with diabetes from the age of 12 years old and over and men receive a one-off abdominal aortic aneurism screen at the time of their 65^th birthday.