Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve rates of bowel cancer diagnosis through screening.

Too many people are still suffering and dying from bowel cancer. We have already taken steps to address this, including expanding the eligible age range for screening so it is now available from age 50 to 74.

And, from this year, we are improving the sensitivity of the screening test. By 2028, each year over 600 more cancers will be detected and 2000 cancers prevented by identifying and removing pre-cancerous polyps.

While uptake of bowel cancer screening has increased, we know that some groups struggle with barriers to engagement, leaving them at risk. We are providing £200m funding for Cancer Alliances, to reduce inequalities in communities among groups where screening uptake is lower.

To further increase coverage, NHS England:

• is delivering new approaches to communicating with people about screening through the NHS App;

• is incorporating the reasonable adjustment flag into screening to ensure people get information in the way they want and adjustments are made to support people at appointments;

• has recently updated the bowel cancer screening leaflets and are updating the bowel cancer screening letters to improve accessibility;

• and has made the bowel cancer screening FIT kit more accessible for people who are blind or partially sighted.