Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the extension of bowel cancer screening to people aged over 50 is planned to begin.
NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England agree that a phased approach is required to safely introduce the lowering of the starting age for bowel screening from 60 to 50, allowing capacity and resources (financial, facilities and accredited workforce) to be built into the system.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS England and NHS Improvement is currently undertaking detailed modelling to assess endoscopy capacity and demand within the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, which will inform decisions about the timing and implementation of the age extension.