Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason there is no national screening programme for prostate cancer.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not currently recommend screening for prostate cancer in the United Kingdom due to the inaccuracy of the current best test, called Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). A PSA-based screening programme could harm men, as some of them would be diagnosed with a cancer that would not have caused them problems during their life. This would lead to additional tests and treatments which can also have harmful side effects.

The Government understands the importance of improving evidence around prostate screening and therefore we are providing £16 million of funding to Prostate Cancer UK's £42 million trial, which is aimed at helping us find a way of catching prostate cancer in men as early as possible.

The UK NSC will consider the evidence for six possible approaches to targeted prostate screening for those at higher risk. The UK NSC will publish its recommendations when complete. The Prostate Cancer Risk Management Programme provides general practices with information to counsel asymptomatic men aged 50 years old about PSA testing for prostate cancer.