Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of asking the National Screening Committee’s to review the evidence on risk-stratified screening.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) already consider risk stratification in screening programmes.

Last year the National Health Service moved from annual diabetic retinopathy testing for all people over 12 years of age with diabetes, to every two years for lower risk individuals. This followed a UK NSC recommendation.

This year, the NHS adopted the UK NSC’s recommendation to move from age-based screening intervals in the cervical screening programme to risk-based intervals. Women with a positive HPV test (high-risk) are screened annually while the general population of women ages 25 – 64 will be screened every five years. The UK NSC are also working with Australian researchers to determine whether HPV vaccination status should be a risk stratification screening consideration.

The UK NSC is considering risk stratification in breast screening. Work is underway with researchers to look at whether women with denser breasts should have a different screening approach, and consideration is being given to whether certain genetic mutations may require further stratification in the breast screening programme.