Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the operation of NHS screening programmes.

NHS England and NHS Improvement did not provide direction at a national level to suspend National Health Service screening programmes in England during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some clinical services at a regional level rescheduled routine screening invitations to a later date in order to protect patients and staff during this pandemic.

All screening programmes have now restarted and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with providers to catch-up the backlog as quickly as possible. Appointments for those at highest risk have already returned to normal levels, and most providers have restored routine invitations to normal levels.

Time-critical screening services, including antenatal and new-born screening and screening for those at highest risk of cancers, continued to be prioritised throughout the COVID19 response.