Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce instances of (a) breast cancer among women and (b) prostate cancer.

In October 2018, the then Prime Minister announced a package of measures that will be rolled out across the country with the aim of seeing three quarters of all cancers detected at an early stage by 2028 (currently just over half). The plan will radically overhaul screening programmes, provide new investment in state of the art technology to transform the process of diagnosis, and boost research and innovation. This follows on from publication in 2015 of the independent Cancer Taskforce’s Cancer Strategy for England which set out a vision of what cancer patients should expect from the health service, including effective prevention.