Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure blood specimens taken for prostate specific antigen tests are separated within 16 hours.

Prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing volumes and the time taken for blood specimens to reach the laboratory for separation, including those within 16 hours, is not currently monitored by NHS England.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) advises that serum samples for PSA testing should be received by the laboratory within 16 hours. Pathology services are expected to implement this NICE recommendation.

All pathology services in England, including prostate specific antigen tests, are also expected to maintain international standards for laboratory quality, certified through UK Accreditation Service (UKAS).