Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of introducing Tomosynthesis to digital mammography in order to improve the accuracy of breast screening.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is aware of the Prospects trial involving 100,000 women to assess whether tomosynthesis could supplement the routine breast screening programme. The UK NSC will review the results of the research as soon as it is available. Tomosynthesis has been approved for use in the National Health Service breast screening programme as an optional tool in the assessment of screen detected soft tissue breast abnormalities, following the primary screen. In the meantime, digital mammography is offered as the primary screen for the programme offering high quality images.