Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department provided to NHS Trusts on the resumption of NHS screening programmes in response to the covid-19 outbreak.

NHS England and NHS Improvement provided guidance to National Health Service trusts on 29 April 2020, recommending that providers should seek to deliver as much routine and preventative work as could be provided safely, including screening, as some routine invitations or appointments had been rescheduled to protect patients and staff during the pandemic. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/04/second-phase-of-nhs-response-to-covid-19-letter-to-chief-execs-29-april-2020.pdf