Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to monitor the success of the NHS scheme to identify breast cancer risk by testing for the BRCA gene.

The NHS Genomic Medicine Service provides a national genomics unit which is responsible for strategic oversight, direction, commissioning and funding, and performance monitoring of genomics service.

The National Health Service is ensuring that people have access to tests that can help them to understand any inherited risks to their health. This includes the offer of ‘catch up’ BRCA testing for people who are eligible, but who have no record of having received a genetic test to date and other initiatives, such as our NHS Jewish BRCA Testing Programme. This initiative has identified 551 BRCA carriers to date, of which 279 are eligible and have been referred into the Very High-Risk Breast Screening Programme for regular screening, demonstrating the potential for this initiative to identify cancer earlier.