Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the draft prostate cancer screening recommendation by the UK National Screening Committee.

We welcome the UK National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC) consideration of the evidence and robust consultation process on both the evidence and its draft recommendation. We are examining the evidence and arguments and will bring together those with differing views.

On 28 November 2025, the UK NSC opened a 12-week public consultation on 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 age 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.

After the consultation closes, in early 2026, the UK NSC will make a final recommendation on screening for prostate cancer. After receiving the final recommendation, ministers will consider whether to accept this and the next steps.