Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the removal of NHS public health functions agreement ring-fence funding on cancer screening programmes.

The Government does not believe that, since 2020/21, removal of a ring-fence in respect of NHS England’s funding for services covered by the annual NHS Public Health Functions Agreement has had any specific impact on delivery of the relevant programmes including cancer screening programmes.

NHS England is committed to delivering maximum levels of screening uptake and coverage across the whole population, both within and between communities. A range of initiatives are underway within individual programmes to, as appropriate, expand eligibility and trial innovative technologies as well as to improve the underpinning service delivery, including alignment with symptomatic services and digital infrastructure.