Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 30 June 2023 to Question 190710 on Cancer: Screening, if she will publish (a) the NHS breast cancer screening uptake improvement plan and (b) an update on the (i) pilot and (ii) testing conducted.

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. There is currently no intention to publish the plan, but 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.

NHS England has commissioned a series of evaluative projects as part of its internal national improvement plan for breast screening, which includes: 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 of using different invitation methodologies with reference to factors such as age, previous screening history, attendance at first invitation and subsequent invites, and deprivation. These projects are expected to report their findings by April 2024.