Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to increase the uptake of screening programmes for gastro-intestinal cancers amongst ethnic minorities in (a) Ealing, Southall, (b) England and (c) the UK.

Public Health England (PHE) is working with NHS England via the Public Health Section 7A agreement to develop a system of performance improvement through the use of performance floors around uptake of cancer screening, including bowel cancer screening, and strengthened governance for screening. The PHE Marketing Strategy 2014 to 2017, published in July 2014, states that PHE will work with the national screening programme to trial mechanisms for improving uptake, particularly amongst disadvantaged groups.

Between January and April 2014, Cancer Research UK (with support from PHE, NHS England - London region, the Department of Health and the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme) tested a number of different approaches to raising awareness of the programme and reducing barriers to participation in London. The approaches tested included various different combinations of an endorsement of the programme from Cancer Research UK, a ‘kit enhancement’ designed to make it easier for people to complete the test, and outdoor advertising to raise awareness of the programme. The evaluation of the programme showed that although the endorsement letter did not significantly impact uptake of screening on its own, the endorsement letter and kit enhancement together increased uptake by between 0.9% to 2.7%. Similar results were seen for the outdoor advertising campaign and the endorsement letter combined. The outdoor advertising campaign, endorsement letter and kit enhancement, when all were taken together, increased uptake by between 2.1% to 6% among 60 to 69 year olds, and 2.6% to 4.6% among 70 to 74 year olds. These results are promising, and Cancer Research UK plan some further testing in partnership with the Welsh Bowel Cancer Screening Programme in early 2015.

The ASCEND study, which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research aims to increase uptake of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme amongst socially deprived and culturally diverse communities. This study is due to conclude in February 2016 having commenced in March 2011, and we look forward to the findings and learning how to engage better with these communities.