Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of women unable to attend breast cancer screenings as a result of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on that programme in England; and how many of those women are classified as high risk.

To recover from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, National Health Service breast screening providers prioritised invitations for key age groups and women at very high risk of breast cancer.

The number of women waiting for a screening invitation decreased from 468,548 on 1 June 2020 to 32,518 on 5 October 2020. In mid-June, 1,936 women defined as high risk were waiting for a screening invitation; as of 5 October 2020, this number decreased to 985. During that time further women have become due for screening. 896,240 women in all categories are awaiting a screening invitation nationally as of 5 October 2020. All services have restarted routine screening and will continue to work to invite these women for a screening appointment.