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 encourage early diagnosis of bowel cancer in Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency.

The Government is determined to improve early diagnosis for bowel cancer, including in the Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency.

We are increasing the sensitivity of faecal immunochemical tests for bowel cancer screening to catch more bowel cancers at an earlier stage. The increase in sensitivity, combined with increased uptake, will deliver 17,000 earlier diagnoses by 2035. The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme already offers people aged 50 to 74 years old screening every two years. The programme is undergoing several updates to its standards aimed at improving coverage, accessibility, and early detection. This includes updated performance thresholds, and improved accessibility of bowel cancer screening kits.

The Department will continue to support digital support tools to help to flag concerning symptoms or test results to general practitioners for all cancers, including in the Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency. As part of this, NHS England will pilot an incentive which encourages the use of electronic safety netting to increase the number of people who complete checks for bowel cancer.

Finally, local communities across England, including in the Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency, will benefit from major investment aimed at reducing cancer screening inequalities and catching more cancers early. We will close inequalities for ethnic minority communities and underserved communities, including for bowel cancer, through local awareness campaigns and our new Neighbourhood Early Diagnosis Fund, which is part of £200 million for Cancer Alliances.