Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have (a) been invited to take part in and (b) taken part in (i) the bowel scope screening programme and (ii) the faecal occult blood test programme to date.

As at the end of January 2015, 83,153 invitations have been issued and 28,674 Bowel Scope Screening procedures have been performed. Uptake stood at approximately 44% and ranged from 38% in the lowest site to 51% in the highest. 1,173 people had been referred to colonoscopy following a Bowel Scope Screening with 29 cancers detected and 541 high/immediate risk polyps and 413 low risk polyps removed.

The Bowel Scope Screening Programme is progressing well, having exceeded the Secretary of State’s commitment to have the programme rolled out to 30% of screening centres by the end of March 2014 and is on target to meet the 60% commitment by the end of March 2015. Around 28 centres now offer Bowel Scope Screening.

At the end of January 2015, nearly 25 million Faecal Occult Blood test kits had been sent out to men and women aged 60-74 to self-sample at home. Over 15 million kits have been returned by post to one of 5 regional labs (programme hubs). Since the Programmes began in 2006, over 21,000 cancers have been detected and over 122,000 patients have been managed for polyps, including polyp removal.