Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of eligible people have received a check through the targeted lung health check programme in Yorkshire since the establishment of that programme; and what steps he plans to take to help increase the update of those checks.

The NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme is available in some areas of England and offers a lung cancer screen to those who are over 55 years old but younger than 75 years old; are registered with a general practitioner; and have a history of smoking.

The Yorkshire region is covered by three Cancer Alliances. NHS England has advised that in the Humber and North Yorkshire, of the 202,527 estimated eligible population, 75,973 people were invited for a lung check, representing 37.5% population coverage. 34,217 had lung checks, and 24,726 had scans. Uptake since inception of the programme is 45%.

In West Yorkshire and Harrogate, of the 202,836 estimated eligible population, 36,277 were invited, representing 17.9% population coverage. 19,941 people had lung checks, and 10,404 had scans. Uptake since inception of the programme is 55%.

In South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, of the 177,788 estimated eligible population, 132,658 were invited, representing 74.6% population coverage. 49,682 had lung checks, and 32,561 had scans. Uptake since inception of the programme stands at 37%.

The Cancer Alliances undertake a range of community engagement, advertising, and ‘reminder’ activities to increase uptake. At a national level, NHS England continues to carry out behavioural insights research to inform their approach to supporting and improving uptake of the programme. NHS England has produced a range of engagement assets including for social media adverts, leaflets and posters which are used by local sites. They aim to run further social media adverts in future.

The NHS Lung Cancer Screening programme will be fully rolled out by 2029.