Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the computer failure in the breast cancer screening programme.

On 2 May my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care reported to Parliament a serious failure in the national breast screening programme in England and announced an independent review to investigate and report on the circumstances of the breast screening failure, which will include establishing the timeline of relevant events from 2009 to 2018 of the Age X trial and the national programme, including their administration and governance. The review will also assess the governance, assurance and accountability processes.

Lynda Thomas, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, and Professor Martin Gore, consultant medical oncologist and professor of cancer medicine at the Royal Marsden, have been appointed as independent chairs and Peter Wyman from the Care Quality Commission has been appointed as the Vice Chair.

The terms of reference have been published with the Written Ministerial Statement (HCWCS731) on 4 June 2018, and the review is due to report in November 2018.