Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment (a) his Department, (b) Public Health England and (c) other organisations made of the timetable to clear the backlog in the screening programme as a resulted of the failure of the breast cancer screening programme.

NHS England is taking major steps to put in place additional capacity of screening services to respond to the breast screening incident working with existing staff, including over evenings and weekends, and advise that they are also working closely with all local services and commissioners to ensure that they can co-ordinate any extra screening required across the programme.

In addition, NHS England is confident that all areas of the country will have the capacity to absorb any increase in demand on diagnostic services for those women who require follow up tests. Private capacity will only be used if necessary and where it meets national standards.

The Department, Public Health England and NHS England are working closely to ensure timelines agreed are met as a result of the failure of the breast cancer screening programme.

All women affected who wish to have a breast screen will receive an appointment to take place before the end of October 2018, but the vast majority will be seen sooner.