Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration he has given to supporting the National Screening Committee to (a) more swiftly implement innovation within screening programmes and (b) adopt innovative new programmes once proven effective.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) and its secretariat have adopted several robust strategies that support responsiveness to innovation in screening.

The committee uses the expertise of its research and methodology group to help researchers focus the design of screening research to ensure it addresses questions in a way that is useful for screening policy. Where screening research trials are ongoing, the secretariat maintains close contact with researchers to ensure that we are proactive in response to the results coming out of the trial.

Where there are evidence gaps in screening research, in-service evaluations provide an innovative solution to generating high quality evidence for the UK NSC in live National Health Services. The UK NSC secretariat works closely with NHS England on upcoming work so that the NHS can optimise their preparations in their readiness for the implementation of recommendations agreed by ministers.

Networking across the healthcare landscape both nationally and internationally helps to ensure that the UK NSC keeps abreast of developments in screening and identifies viable innovations in tests and treatments that are suitable in the context of the United Kingdom. Collaboration between organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, and professional bodies such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists supports joined up working with partners and avoids unnecessary duplication.