Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to ensure that NHS breast screening units are adequately resourced to manage the backlog of appointments that have accrued during the covid-19 outbreak.

The National Health Service is working with Public Health England to prioritise individuals most at risk of breast cancer and make best use of the capacity available in the system. This includes working on a tool which will enable local providers to model capacity against demand for breast screening and identify where targeted actions are needed to increase the availability of and access to appointments.

In addition, funding has been made available to local teams to adapt mobile breast screening units so that appointments can go ahead safely.