Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to support colonoscopy services following the extension of the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme to include people aged 50-74.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The age extension for bowel screening started in April 2021 with the 56 year old cohort and, based on modelling and clinical advice, has followed the planned gradual reduction to age 50 by 2025. This has been done to ensure that screening centres could manage the required increase in colonoscopy capacity.
Services have increased screening capacity. Screening and symptomatic endoscopy services are working closely together as part of the ongoing endoscopy transformation of symptomatic pathways, which aims to release colonoscopy capacity through, for example:
Bowel cancer screening is a crucial aspect of prevention, helping identify apparently healthy people who may have an increased risk of a particular condition, preventing bowel cancer and promoting earlier diagnosis and detection. NHS England is committed to delivering bowel cancer screening uptake across the whole population and is working to reduce inequalities. As part of this, NHS England is developing public communications to increase awareness of screening amongst younger age groups, particularly in those 50 years old and over cohorts, who are newly eligible. This includes updating online and digital channels and working with key external stakeholders.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to encourage uptake of the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme to people aged 50 following the reduction of age eligibility.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The age extension for bowel screening started in April 2021 with the 56 year old cohort and, based on modelling and clinical advice, has followed the planned gradual reduction to age 50 by 2025. This has been done to ensure that screening centres could manage the required increase in colonoscopy capacity.
Services have increased screening capacity. Screening and symptomatic endoscopy services are working closely together as part of the ongoing endoscopy transformation of symptomatic pathways, which aims to release colonoscopy capacity through, for example:
Bowel cancer screening is a crucial aspect of prevention, helping identify apparently healthy people who may have an increased risk of a particular condition, preventing bowel cancer and promoting earlier diagnosis and detection. NHS England is committed to delivering bowel cancer screening uptake across the whole population and is working to reduce inequalities. As part of this, NHS England is developing public communications to increase awareness of screening amongst younger age groups, particularly in those 50 years old and over cohorts, who are newly eligible. This includes updating online and digital channels and working with key external stakeholders.
Asked by: Richard Baker (Labour - Glenrothes and Mid Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it his policy to collect data on the number of workers who work (a) directly and (b) indirectly with welding fume who have received diagnosis of (i) nasal, (ii) septum, (iii) throat, (iv) stomach, (v) bowel, (vi) kidney, (vii) liver, (viii) lung and (ix) bladder cancer.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is responsible for collection of data of workplace injury and illness. The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) provides the national reporting framework for responsible persons (usually employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises) to report certain cases of injury, diseases and specified dangerous occurrences to the relevant Enforcing Authority (HSE or Local Authority). Regulation 9 of RIDDOR requires the responsible person to report a diagnosis of any cancer attributed to an occupational exposure to a known human carcinogen in their current job.
When reporting, the responsible person must provide details on the affected person's occupation or job title and a description of the work that led to the disease. This would capture whether the person is a welder and/or carries out welding as part of their job. There is also the option to report the specific type of cancer being diagnosed.
HSE also collects data on occupational cancers through the Health and Occupational Reporting (THOR) network. This includes:
Where available, occupational information such as job title may be recorded, potentially identifying welders.
However, welders may also be exposed to other carcinogens, such as asbestos, during their work so it is difficult to directly link a diagnosis of cancer specifically to exposure to welding fumes.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of an (a) centralised and (b) nationwide case-finding programme to identify people at high risk of (i) developing and (ii) inheriting less survivable cancers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) has committed to developing a National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Register (NICPR) as part of its 2024 to 2027 strategy, building on the work to establish the National Lynch Registry. The NICPR will launch on 30 June, and will look at a wider range of cancers for which there is an increased inherited risk, including for less survivable cancers. It will identify high-risk individuals who are eligible for targeted screening and surveillance, and will act as an electronic referral route into national screening programmes where these exist, for instance Lynch syndrome and bowel screening.
The NICPR is also a key commitment in the Rare Disease Action Plan for England, with NDRS in NHS England as the lead delivery partner, further highlighting its relevance to improving care for people with rare inherited cancer risk.
NHS England is also working on case-finding approaches for less survivable cancers, where the evidence suggests this is appropriate. It is currently developing a public-facing Family History Checker, which enables people and their families affected by pancreatic cancer to self-assess if they may inherit risk. Individuals identified as being at risk are referred directly to the European Registry of Hereditary Pancreatic Diseases research trial, which aims to understand inherited conditions of the pancreas. Referrals to the trial can be made by any healthcare professional across all health sectors or by individuals via self-referral, contributing to a centralised approach to case-finding.
As part of our National Cancer Plan, we have been working with members of the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce, a group of charities focusing on cancers with poor survival rates, to identify how we can improve diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes for less survivable cancers.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to help reduce waiting times for cancer (a) screening and (b) testing in Fylde constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government understands that more needs to be done to reduce waiting times for cancer patients, including those in Fylde constituency. To achieve this, we have delivered an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week during our first year in Government, as the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and faster treatment.
We will support the National Health Service to transform diagnostic services by spending £1.65 billion on additional capacity, including new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners, to support the delivery of over 30,000 more procedures and 1.25 million diagnostic tests, as they come online.
In March 2025, performance across Lancashire and South Cumbria, which includes the Fylde constituency, for diagnosing patients within the 28-day standard was 80% against the 75% standard.
NHS England North West is currently the responsible commissioner for the three cancer screening programmes, namely breast, bowel and cervical, for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board footprint, which includes the Fylde constituency.
For bowel screening, additional funding has been provided to the Lancashire programme to increase capacity and to support the local population to access colonoscopy, as required.
For breast screening, a full review of all screening sites has been carried out across the region to ensure that they meet the needs of the local population, and the provider programme team meets regularly with system partners to maximise uptake.
NHS England North West has also provided funding for an Improving Uptake Officer post. This role involves working directly with general practices and local community groups to improve uptake, as well as contacting individuals who have not attended their appointment to offer them a new appointment.
For cervical screening, insight work was carried out in 2023 across the North West to understand the reasons why individuals were not coming forward for their cervical screening and to gain views from residents on what would support more people to take up their cervical screening. Using findings from this work, a number of pilot projects are currently being implemented to understand the impact on improving uptake. These include online booking of appointments, training for cervical sample takers to improve patient experience, community champions, and alternative venues for screening.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what commemorative (1) days, (2) weeks, and (3) months, are recognised by (a) the Department of Health and Social Care, and (b) NHS England, as significant for diversity and inclusion, excluding religious holidays.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold an official list of approved commemorative days, weeks, or months. We follow direction from Cabinet Office on important national days to be marked across the Civil Service. All other commemorative days, weeks, or months are considered on a case- by-case basis in discussion with our staff networks and senior sponsors. Efforts are made to align any commemorative events to departmental priorities, and to include a health and social care angle to broaden the reach of the activity and deepen departmental understanding of how we are making a difference in our communities. Examples of commemorative events the Department has marked to date include Holocaust Memorial Day, Mental Health Awareness Week, Veterans Day, Pride Month, Black History Month, Cancer Awareness Days, Carers Day, and Social Mobility Day.
The Department will continue to be led by Cabinet Office steers and by the recommendations of our staff networks and leadership, and will try and leverage commemoration days to deepen our organisational knowledge of health and care issues and the communities we serve.
NHS England acknowledges a range of significant commemorative days and events that align with their organisational priorities and help them fulfil their Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010. While they engage with a broad spectrum of important health awareness and equality-related events, there is no formalised schedule or overarching programme in place.
Some of the commemorative days and events NHS England has recognised to date include VE Day, Mental Health Awareness Week, Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week, International Women’s Day, Bowel Cancer Awareness Day, Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day, Black History Month, International Nurses Day, and Holocaust Memorial Day.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of undertaking a National Mesothelioma Clinical Audit to (a) identify gaps in mesothelioma care, (b) optimise allocation of resources and (c) help tackle regional inequalities in care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing unwarranted variation in cancer care and treatment is a priority for the Government. In December 2024, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care committed to developing a National Cancer Plan.
The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, and will apply to all cancer types, including mesothelioma. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care, including experiences and outcomes and addressing inequalities in care. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next 10 years.
In October 2022, the NHS Cancer Programme commissioned the Royal College of Surgeons to deliver six new cancer clinical audits on primary breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and kidney cancer. These were in addition to four ongoings clinical audits on lung, bowel, prostate and oesophago-gastric cancer. The new audits, commissioned in 2022, released their first annual State of the Nation report in Autumn 2024, which is available at the following link:
https://www.natcan.org.uk/audits/
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to increase the uptake of bowel screenings.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Coverage of bowel cancer screening has been increasing in recent years, with a marked increase from 2019 of 11.3 percentage points since the faecal immunochemical test (FIT) test was rolled out as the primary test in the screening programme with coverage amongst people aged between 60 and 74 years old currently standing at 71.8%.
The bowel cancer screening standards have recently been reviewed, with changes taking effect from 1 April 2025. This will update the achievable and acceptable thresholds for both uptake and coverage. The new coverage thresholds for people aged between 60 and 74 years old will be acceptable level of more than or equal to 62.0%, and achievable level of more than or equal to 76.0%.
To further increase coverage, NHS England: is delivering new approaches to communicating with people about screening through the NHS App; is supporting frontline screening staff and enabling the delivery of new technology, including artificial intelligence; is improving the way eligible people are identified and invited for screening through the transformation of screening programme digital services; is incorporating the reasonable adjustment flag into screening to ensure people get information in the way they want; has recently updated the bowel cancer screening leaflets to improve accessibility; and has made the bowel cancer screening FIT kit more accessible for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to increase awareness of bowel cancer symptoms in (a) Slough and (b) the South East.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns run across England and is accessible publicly, including for those living in Slough and the South East. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging ‘body awareness’ to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point. Previous phases of the campaign have focused on abdominal symptoms which, among other abdominal cancers, can be indicative of bowel cancer. It is the responsibility of local National Health Service organisations to consider whether they wish to run additional campaigns tailored to the needs of their local population and aligned to their service provisions.
NHS England and other NHS organisations, nationally and locally, also publish information on the signs and symptoms of many different types of cancer, including bowel cancer. This information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/bowel-cancer/symptoms/
The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care. The government’s goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years, including bowel cancer.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the NHS England pilot of reducing the faecal immunochemical test threshold for the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme from 120µg/g to 80µg/g on his policies on the wider roll-out of that threshold.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is assessing the potential impact of reducing the faecal immunochemical test (FIT) threshold for the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme from 120µg/g to 80µg/g. This is an ongoing assessment which includes evaluating and learning from early adopter sites, undertaking activity modelling, and reviewing the modelling carried out by the School of Health and Related Research which was commissioned by the UK National Screening Committee. Alongside multi-disciplinary regional planning, this will support the planning for the wider roll-out of the threshold reduction.
Activity modelling shows that the wider roll-out is likely to increase demand on specialist screening practitioners and colonoscopy services by approximately 35%. The expectation is that the reduced threshold will increase polyp detection, thereby preventing bowel cancer and also diagnosing more bowel cancers earlier.
To support the early adopters and plans for reducing the threshold across all bowel cancer screening sites, there is ongoing endoscopy transformation, of symptomatic pathways, which aims to release colonoscopy capacity through a number of routes. These include: