Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of improving systems to identify men with (a) BRCA1 and (b) BRCA2 gene variations who may be eligible for prostate cancer screening.

The National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Register (NICPR), launched 1 July 2025, captures data on all individuals with a likely pathogenic/pathogenic variant in a cancer susceptibility gene in England. This world-first national dataset of individuals at increased cancer risk provides significant opportunities for improved clinical care, audit, and research.

The NICPR is part of the National Disease Registration Service and is a new initiative for NHS England. In view of the UK National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC) draft recommendations on screening men for prostate cancer, NHS England is working closely with colleagues in regional clinical genetics services to ensure that accurate data is gathered and can be applied effectively to inform future work.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will consider the final recommendation of the UK NSC on screening for prostate cancer when it is received. He will make a decision on implementation, including any changes to BRCA testing eligibility, at that point.

It is anticipated that the final recommendation will be provided in early 2026 after the conclusion of a 12 week consultation which opened on 28 November 2025. This seeks views on an evidence review and a draft recommendation to:

- offer a targeted national prostate cancer screening programme to men with confirmed BRCA1/2 gene variants every two years, from 45 years old to 61 years old;

- not recommend population screening;

- not recommend targeted screening of black men;

- not recommend targeted screening of men with family history; and

- collaborate with the Transform trial team to answer outstanding questions on screening effectiveness for black men and men with a family history as soon as the trial data becomes available, and to await the results of the study to develop and trial a more accurate test than the prostate specific antigen test alone, to improve the balance of benefit and harm of screening.