Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of information maintained by the NHS to enable his Department to assess the reasons why women choose to have a BRCA1/2 test.

NHS England does hold data on the individual reasons patients may have for seeking referral for a BRCA1/2 test. A new clinical commissioning policy to guide and expand access to BRCA testing was published by NHS England in July 2015. This policy is intended to provide greater clarity and equity for patients across England wishing to consider testing by providing consistent criteria for referral, where a referral is made by a specialist clinic.