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 impact of risk-stratified screening on improving early detection of prostate cancer.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), which advises ministers on all screening matters, commissioned an evidence review modelling the clinical effectiveness and cost of several approaches to prostate cancer screening. This included different potential ways of screening the whole population and targeted screening aimed at groups of people identified as being at higher-than-average risk, such as black men or men with a family history of cancer.

The modelling and evidence review reports are now complete, and the UK NSC plans to open a three-month public consultation towards the end of the year. After this, the UK NSC will make a recommendation on screening for prostate cancer. Ministers will then be asked to consider whether to accept the recommendation.