Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the NHS has taken to contact women who missed breast cancer screening appointments due to the covid-19 pandemic.

All breast screening services are reporting that they have recovered from the impact of COVID-19.

To achieve this a number of steps have been taken, including:

- Breast Screening Offices running extra screening sessions and fully optimising available appointments to clear the mammogram backlog;

- developing a ‘NHS National Demand and Capacity Tool’ to support collation and analyses of data to identify where support and interventions are required;

- adapting mobile breast screening units so that women can be seen safely, in line with infection protection and control procedures;

- providers being encouraged to use methods such as text messaging to remind women about their breast screening invitation and encourage them to attend; and

- regional commissioners working closely with cancer alliances and cancer charities to develop uptake plans which address specific population needs.

In addition, the Department has invested £10 million of funding into the NHS Breast Screening Programme, providing 28 new breast screening units targeted at areas with the greatest challenges of uptake and coverage to boost uptake of screening in areas where attendance is low and tackle health disparities.