Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Department is taking to help raise public and clinical awareness of the BEST4 Screening trial and to support eligible patients to participate in capsule sponge testing for early detection of Barrett’s oesophagus.

The Department funds research and research infrastructure through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR is funding the BEST4 trial with over £3 million funding contributed through the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme and a further £3 million funding from Cancer Research UK. This includes funding for the research team to engage with the patient community.

The study is also supported by NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN) portfolio adoption to enable the recruitment of eligible participants and support research delivery. The NIHR RDN is raising awareness of the trial and supporting eligible patients to participate through National Health Service Research text messaging, providing secure mobile screening vans and engaging clinicians to connect them with the study.

Additionally, recruitment for the BEST4 trial is being supported by Be Part of Research, a free service that allows people across the UK to find and sign up to research relevant to them. The NIHR has also supported the trial with proactive communications, including a news item on 08/04/2025.