Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of progress in diagnosing and treating bowel cancer in the last seven years.

One-year survival from colorectal cancer has improved from 75% in 2010 to 77.2% for patients diagnosed in 2014, the most recent year for which figures are available. Screening is critical in improving earlier diagnosis of bowel cancers and improving outcomes. The current screening test, guaiac faecal occult blood test will be replaced with a new easier to use screening test (Faecal Immunochemical Test for haemoglobin, FIT) from April 2018. In addition, from April 2016 NHS England has begun to commission the Bowel Scope Screening Programme, which will ultimately offer a flexi-sigmoidoscopy (bowel scope) to all 55 year olds in England.