Oral Answers to Questions

David Reed Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

It does sound concerning that that decision has been taken. I urge all councils to work with their local integrated care boards and other parts of the NHS system to ensure that healthcare of that kind is provided in areas where people can access it, as part of our plan to make certain that healthcare is available throughout the country.

[David Reed (Exmouth and Exeter East) (Con)]

7. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provision of health services for men.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (James Murray)]

Too many men lead too much of their lives in poor health and face barriers to access to health services. We have published England’s first ever men’s health strategy to get men speaking about their physical and mental health, and we are getting on with implementing it. From partnering with the Premier League to investing in the men’s health community fund, we are meeting men where they are, and helping them to lead longer, healthier lives.

[David Reed]

The NHS itself says that prostate cancer often has no symptoms at first, and Prostate Cancer UK says most men with early prostate cancer have no symptoms at all. The Government’s TRANSFORM trial exists because current detection methods are recognised as inadequate. Why does Government messaging still point men towards early symptoms that they are unlikely to have, while cancers that could be cured are becoming cancers that cannot?

[James Murray]

Let me be really clear in my advice to any man who is worried about prostate cancer, whether he has symptoms or not: go and discuss it with your GP. Testing is available when GPs recommend it, and I would recommend to no man that he should worry about it in silence, sit at home and fret about what might be going on.

The wider, targeted screening programme to which the Government have agreed is based on the evidence from weighing up the benefits of screening versus the harm that it can cause. We know that, at present, if cancerous cells are identified and treatment follows—for example, removal of the prostate—it leads to permanent urinary incontinence in 20% of cases and in two thirds of cases to permanent erectile dysfunction.