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 potential merits of introducing bowel screening for people aged over 74.

In the United Kingdom, national screening programmes are introduced based on the recommendations of the UK National Screening Committee, an independent scientific advisory committee which advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries on all aspects of population and targeted screening, as well as supporting implementation.

As screening programmes can cause harms as well as benefits, each of the adult screening programmes has both an upper and lower age range within which there is good scientific evidence that the benefits of screening outweigh the harms.

The UK National Screening Committee does not currently recommend routine bowel screening over the age of 74 years old, as there is a lack of evidence regarding the harms and benefits of screening above this age. Once people are 75 years old or over, they can ask for a bowel screening kit every two years by phoning the free bowel cancer screening helpline on 0800 707 60 60.