Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to ensure the effectiveness of cancer screening programmes in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

NHS England Screening and Immunisation Teams, including a dedicated team covering Thames Valley, work closely with providers and local partners to ensure cancer screening programmes are delivered in line with national standards for quality, safety and effectiveness.

At a local level, the NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (ICB) works in partnership with NHS England, primary care, providers and the Thames Valley Cancer Alliance to support the delivery and uptake of cancer screening programmes across Buckingham and Bletchley. This includes ongoing monitoring of screening coverage and performance at place and practice level, identifying variation, and supporting action where uptake or performance falls below national standards.

At a national level, we recently announced that the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme in England is lowering the faecal immunochemical test threshold from 120 micrograms of blood per gram of faeces to 80 micrograms of blood per gram of faeces. It is estimated that this change will detect approximately 600 additional bowel cancers early each year in England, approximately an 11% increase, and find 2,000 more people with high-risk polyps in their bowel, allowing doctors to remove them before they ever turn into cancers.

Additionally, in early 2026, the NHS Cervical Screening Programme will be offering a self-testing kit to under-screened women, starting with those who are the most overdue for screening. This will help tackle deeply entrenched barriers that keep some away from screening.

These national-level changes will benefit people across England, including those living in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.