Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 15 of NHS England’s 2022-23 priorities and operational planning guidance, whether NHS England plans to publish details of the Targeted Lung Health Check projects that will be launched in 202-23.

Up to £70 million of targeted funding under the National Health Service Cancer Programme’s Service Development Funding budget has been made available to support the running of Targeted Lung Health Checks (TLHC) in 2022/23. This will include the expansion of the programme to ensure a project in each Cancer Alliance.

NHS England and NHS Improvement also supports the delivery of the TLHC programme with standard protocols, expert advice, and nationally procured and coordinated quality assurance and training.

There are currently nine Cancer Alliances without a TLHC project. NHS England and NHS Improvement plan to expand the TLHC programme in 2022/23 to ensure that each of these Cancer Alliances has at least one TLHC programme. We estimate an additional eight computerised tomography (CT) scanners will be needed to facilitate this expansion.