Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to extend eligibility for NHS lung screening programmes to include people with a history of occupational exposure to (a) asbestos, (b) coal dust and (c) other hazardous substances.

The NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme is offered to people between the ages of 55 and 74 years old who are current smokers or have previously been smokers. This is in line with the recommendation made by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) in 2022.

The UK NSC recognised that there are other causes of lung cancer such as air pollution and occupational exposure to inhaled carcinogens but as 72% of lung cancer is largely attributable to age and smoking status, the benefits of screening would have the most impact in this cohort of people.

When appraising the viability of a targeted screening the UK NSC takes into consideration the feasibility of identifying the cohort of people eligible for targeted screening. This would be necessary if the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme were to be extended to these groups.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), welcomes any new published peer reviewed evidence which suggests the case for a new or modified screening programme via its annual call, of which details are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-nsc-annual-call-submitting-a-screening-proposal/uk-nsc-annual-call-how-to-submit-a-proposal