Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with clinicians and relevant professional bodies regarding the development of new diagnostic pathways for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that reduce reliance on a single test and enable diagnosis in a wider range of care settings.

To enable faster diagnosis of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and earlier treatment, access to spirometry tests in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is growing and will continue to do so as more sites come online. The first five months of 2025/26 saw an increase in CDC spirometry testing of approximately 2,000 tests per month more than in the previous year.

As of November 2025, CDCs are now delivering additional tests and checks in 170 sites across the country. 101 CDCs across the country now offer out of hours services, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital diagnostic tests around busy working lives.

Research into new diagostic tests for COPD, such as computed cardiopulmonography and N-Tidal Diagnose, is underway. Discussions on whether new diagnostic pathways could be developed will be dependent on the research findings.