Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase the take-up of bowel cancer screening.

The UK National Screening Committee recommended moving to the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) at its November 2015 meeting. Research and pilot evidence shows that this is more acceptable than the faecal occult blood testing (FOBt) and will raise uptake. Public Health England (PHE) in partnership with NHS England is leading on the implementation of FIT in England which is due to commence in 2018.

PHE sets standards for uptake and coverage for screening programmes and reports through the Public Health Outcomes Framework.

The National Health Service measures performance of a range of screening and immunisation programmes through the Section 7a agreement. One is Bowel cancer screening programme: FOBt Screening Uptake (all rounds). This is reported nationally and regionally.