Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of including PSA testing in routine NHS health checks.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has commissioned a university to carry out a high quality review and cost effectiveness model of the evidence for a national prostate cancer screening programme. This includes considering evidence that looks at targeted screening using prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing, as well as looking at other screening tests.

The UK NSC’s previous review in 2020 advised against screening because the current best test, the PSA test, is not accurate. As a result, it can lead to some men receiving false reassurance when they do actually have prostate cancer, and others receiving unnecessary further tests when they did not have prostate cancer.

We need a better test, which is why the Government has invested £16 million in the TRANSFORM trial, to look for a better test.