Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of lowering the screening age for (a) lung, (b) breast, (c) bowel and (d) other cancers.

Decisions on the age eligibility for national screening programmes is set in recommendations from the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). The UK NSC makes informed decisions on age eligibility based on scientific evidence on the effectiveness and harms to different age cohorts if they are invited to be screened.

Th UK NSC works to review and adapt programmes according to the latest scientific evidence. Following a UK NSC recommendation, the bowel cancer screening programme is currently lowing the eligible age to 50 years old from 60 years old. This is due to be finished by 2024/25. UK NSC awaits the outcome of a large research project called AgeX which is looking at the upper and lower age limit for breast screening.