Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the current age range for bowel cancer screening.

Based on advice from the UK National Screening Committee, NHS England committed in the Long Term Plan to extend the age range of people eligible for bowel screening using the FIT home testing kit from age 60 down to age 50.

The age extension for bowel screening is already underway. NHS England started in April 2021 with the 56-year-old cohort and, based on modelling and clinical advice, has planned to gradually reduce to age 50 by 2025. This has been done to ensure that screening centres could manage any required increase in colonoscopy capacity.