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 increase access to breast cancer risk assessment for women under 50.

National Health Service breast cancer risk assessments are undertaken to identify the risk of having an inherited tendency of developing breast cancer. Breast screening is offered to women under the age of 50 years old according to nationally recommended guidelines, based on assessed risk. These can be found on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s website, at the following link:

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/breast-screening/

Some women have an increased chance of developing breast cancer because of their genes. Five to 10 out of 100, or 5% to 10% of, all breast cancers happen because of an inherited tendency, also called a genetic predisposition.

The Government does not currently plan to increase access to breast cancer risk assessments for women under 50 years old who are not at higher risk of developing breast cancer due to inherited tendency.