Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that cancer screening programmes recommended by the National Screening Committee are (a) funded and (b) available to patients as quickly as possible.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) Secretariat works closely with NHS England. This means NHS England is aware of conditions that the committee is considering for a screening programme. The costs and workforce requirements of potential screening programmes are considered when setting budgets so that when a positive recommendation is made by the UK NSC and accepted by Ministers, the National Health Service can begin work on implementing the screening programme.

The roll out of a screening programme needs to be done systematically and at a pace that the NHS’s capacity can cope with to ensure safety for those members of the public who accept the screening offer.