Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make home testing kits that detect prostate cancer available through the NHS; and if he will publish his timetable for doing so.

There are currently no plans to introduce a home testing programme for prostate cancer. The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC), which advises the Government and the National Health Service on screening, looked again at the evidence in November 2020 and maintained its recommendation against introducing a screening programme for prostate cancer. The UK NSC made its recommendation on the basis that the current prostate-specific antigen test used to detect prostate cancer was not accurate enough and would miss some cancers, meaning many men would receive unnecessary treatments causing more harm than it prevents.

The evidence for a prostate cancer screening programme, along with other potential programmes, is kept under review every three years. If new and significant evidence emerges, the review will be brought forward.