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Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Tuesday 19th March 2024

Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) lowering the breast cancer screening age to 40 and (b) including a breast cancer risk assessment in the first appointment.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) currently recommends that all women aged 50 years old to 71 years old are invited for breast screening every three years. A trial, AgeX is looking at the impact of increasing or decreasing, or both, the screening age for the breast screening programme. When the results from this trial are available, the UK NSC will review the findings. The UK NSC plans to review the evidence for risk stratification in breast screening to tailor it more closely to an individual’s risk of cancer, rather than the current population-based approach.


Written Question
Trastuzumab Deruxtecan
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to encourage the England-wide roll-out of the drug Enhertu to aid the treatment of people with breast cancer.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing evidence-based guidance on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service, based on an assessment of their costs and benefits.

The NICE published guidance in 2021 and 2023 recommending Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) for the treatment of NHS patients with HER2-positive breast cancer through the Cancer Drugs Fund, and it is now available to eligible NHS patients in line with the NICE’s recommendations.

The NICE is currently evaluating Enhertu for the treatment of metastatic HER2-low breast cancer, and published final draft guidance on 5 March 2024 that does not recommend it as a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources. Stakeholders have until 19 March 2024 to lodge an appeal against the NICE’s recommendations. The NICE currently expects to publish final guidance on 3 April 2024.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 1 February (HL1933), what progress they have made on reducing variation in breast screening services since 2019.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Breast Screening Programmes were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and some breast screening offices took the decision to pause services temporarily to support the pandemic response. All breast cancer screening services have now recovered from the pandemic, and have no backlog of people waiting to be screened.

Increasing uptake and reducing health inequalities remains paramount as part of the ambitions set out in the NHS Long Term Plan to directly support early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. Regional commissioners are working closely with cancer alliances and cancer charities to develop uptake plans which address their specific populations needs.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 1 February (HL1933), what are the agreed efficiency standards following restoration of breast screening services since the COVID-19 pandemic; how this decision was made; and by whom.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The standards for breast screening include an acceptable uptake and coverage level of greater than or equal to 70%, and an achievable uptake and coverage level of greater than or equal to 80%. Full details about the changes to breast screening standards before and after COVID-19, are available on the GOV.UK website, in an online only format.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 1 February (HL1933), what were the agreed efficiency standards for breast cancer screening prior to the restoration of services since the COVID-19 pandemic; and what are the agreed efficiency standards now.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The standards for breast screening include an acceptable uptake and coverage level of greater than or equal to 70%, and an achievable uptake and coverage level of greater than or equal to 80%. Full details about the changes to breast screening standards before and after COVID-19, are available on the GOV.UK website, in an online only format.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has to help improve breast screening uptake.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England has developed an internal national plan in collaboration with key stakeholders, to improve uptake within the breast screening programme from 2023 and beyond. This plan will encompass a series of evaluative projects, which are expected to report by April 2024. It is available on the NHS Futures Platform. This is a collaboration platform that empowers everyone working in health and social care to safely connect, share, and learn across boundaries.

The Government has invested £10 million of funding for the breast screening programme, which provided 28 new breast screening units and nearly 60 upgrades, to be targeted at areas with the greatest challenges of uptake and coverage. This will provide extra capacity for services to recover from the impact of the pandemic, boost uptake of screening in areas where attendance is low, tackle health disparities, and contribute towards higher early diagnosis rates in line with the NHS Long Term Plan.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Warwickshire, Solihull and Coventry Breast Screening Unit is taking as part of the breast screening improvement plan; what the timeline is for their delivery; and how much funding has been allocated for their delivery.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England Midlands is the responsible commissioner for the NHS Breast Cancer Screening Programme delivered across the Warwickshire, Solihull, and Coventry locality. The Warwickshire, Solihull, and Coventry service is one of the largest breast screening services in England, inviting approximately 55,000 people for screening each year.

NHS England Midlands has advised that for the breast screening improvement plan, work has begun on reviewing coverage for the Warwickshire, Solihull, and Coventry breast screening services. The service continues to collaborate with primary care practices to promote uptake for patients in low uptake areas, and staff facilitate local community events to educate on the importance of breast screening, for instance at the Godiva and Pride Festivals in Coventry.

In 2024/25 the service will receive a contract value in excess of £3 million, to ensure that cancer is detected early through screening. The service has also received capital investment during the last two years, which has supported additional imaging equipment to increase overall screening capacity within the service and pathway.

Work continues to ensure the current breast screening provision is improving, and once coverage has returned to pre-pandemic levels, NHS England Midlands hope to go further on ambitions to decrease inequity across all cancer screening programmes.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Health Education
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to deliver a national awareness campaign on breast cancer screening to help improve uptake.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is currently exploring opportunities for national campaigns to support positive outcomes on women’s health.

Work is underway to scope the feasibility of running a national campaign to support breast screening uptake, and this will be informed by pilot activity due to run in London in 2024/25.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reasons the NHS missed its target of 70% of invited women to be screened for breast cancer in 2022-23.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is committed to improving uptake in the NHS Breast Screening Programme. NHS England has commissioned evaluative projects to understand why women are not coming forward for screenings, and ways to improve uptake, these include:

- actively following up with women who have missed an appointment or not engaged with the service;

- looking at the reasons why women do not attend screenings, to address any barriers; and

- assessing the impact on screening uptake using different invitation methodologies with reference to factors such as age, previous screening history including attendance at first invitation and subsequent invites, and deprivation.

These projects are expected to report by April 2024.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase breast cancer screening uptake (a) in general and (b) in (i) areas and (ii) communities where uptake is lowest.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England has developed a national plan to improve uptake within the breast screening programme, part of which involves interventions to address inequalities and screening barriers. This includes working to ensure that breast screening appointments are as convenient to people as possible and focusing its efforts on low uptake areas and groups. NHS England is also working to ensure they have data, including on protected characteristics, to support services to deliver more targeted initiatives.