Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of rolling out population-wide genetic testing for mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.

In the Cancer Strategy for England, the independent Cancer Taskforce recommended that all women with non-mucinous epithelial ovarian cancer should be offered testing for BRCA1/BRCA2 at the point of diagnosis, and that all women under the age of 50 diagnosed with breast cancer should be offered testing for BRCA1/BRCA2 at the point of diagnosis.

Testing women at the point of diagnosis can ensure access to the most relevant treatment and enable family members to understand their own risk and take preventative action where appropriate.

As part of the National Health Service’s new Genomic Medicine Service, NHS England will publish a Test Directory to specify the genetic and genomic testing available in the NHS in England. The Test Directory will encompass the entire genetic and genomic testing repertoire, from Whole Genomic Sequencing to large panel tests and tests for single genes.

The Test Directory will be updated annually, following advice from an expert scientific and clinical committee that will be established to operate in accordance with NHS England’s specialised services commissioning processes.