Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to promote awareness and early diagnosis of (a) bowel cancer and (b) other cancers.

The Be Clear on Cancer bowel cancer campaign has run twice at a national level, in January – April 2012 and August – September 2012. Public Health England (PHE) has no plans to run this specific bowel cancer campaign in 2017, instead the aim is to cover this cancer area with a new generic approach that is currently being piloted in the East and West Midlands.

This regional pilot campaign, which aims to raise awareness of a range of abdominal symptoms that can indicate a wider number of cancers, including bowel, and the need to visit the doctor promptly with these symptoms launched on 9 February and will run until 31 March 2017. This work has been developed with the help of a number of experts, including clinicians and charities.

PHE is also working in partnership with Cancer Research UK to run a regional test of a Be Clear on Cancer branded campaign promoting uptake of bowel screening.

Both pilot campaigns will be thoroughly evaluated and, if successful, will be considered for wider rollout.