Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the reasons for which the NHS missed its target of 70% of invited women to be screened for breast cancer in 2022-23.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to improving uptake in the NHS Breast Screening Programme. NHS England has commissioned evaluative projects to look at ways to improve uptake, and to understand why women may not attend breast screening. These include: actively following up with women who have missed an appointment or not engaged with the service; looking at the reasons why women do not attend screenings, to address any barriers; and assessing the impact on screening uptake using different invitation methodologies with reference to factors such as age, previous screening history, including attendance at first invitation and subsequent invites, and deprivation. These projects are expected to report by April 2024.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the uptake of breast cancer screening in (a) England and (b) Norwich.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has invested £10 million of funding for the breast screening programme, which provided 28 new breast screening units and nearly 60 upgrades, to be targeted at areas with the greatest challenges of uptake and coverage. NHS England has developed a national plan in collaboration with key stakeholders, to improve uptake within the breast screening programme.
In the East of England, NHS England will work with the Breast Screening Service and the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board to undertake a gap analysis and prioritise actions, and to look at options to increase its resilience by working with other local providers as a network.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing (a) a risk assessment and (b) a breast density assessment during a women's first breast cancer screening appointment.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) plans to review the evidence for risk stratification in breast screening, to tailor it more closely to an individual’s risk of cancer, rather than the current population-based approach.
In 2019, the UK NSC reviewed the benefit of additional screening with ultrasound after a negative mammography screening, for women with dense breasts. The Committee concluded that there was insufficient evidence to recommend additional ultrasound screening at that time.
The Breast Screening Risk Adaptive Imaging for Density trial is looking into the use of supplementary imaging techniques for women within the standard breast screening programme, who are found to have radiographically dense breast tissue. The UK NSC will review this evidence when it becomes available.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) lowering the breast cancer screening age to 40 and (b) including a breast cancer risk assessment in the first appointment.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) currently recommends that all women aged 50 years old to 71 years old are invited for breast screening every three years. A trial, AgeX is looking at the impact of increasing or decreasing, or both, the screening age for the breast screening programme. When the results from this trial are available, the UK NSC will review the findings. The UK NSC plans to review the evidence for risk stratification in breast screening to tailor it more closely to an individual’s risk of cancer, rather than the current population-based approach.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 1 February (HL1933), what progress they have made on reducing variation in breast screening services since 2019.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Breast Screening Programmes were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and some breast screening offices took the decision to pause services temporarily to support the pandemic response. All breast cancer screening services have now recovered from the pandemic, and have no backlog of people waiting to be screened.
Increasing uptake and reducing health inequalities remains paramount as part of the ambitions set out in the NHS Long Term Plan to directly support early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. Regional commissioners are working closely with cancer alliances and cancer charities to develop uptake plans which address their specific populations needs.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase the uptake of the HPV vaccine by (a) girls and (b) boys.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works closely with charities such as Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust and the Teenage Cancer Trust to develop resources to raise awareness and educate young girls and boys about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and related cancers. The UKHSA has helped develop education resources for schools called EDUCATE, co-developed with teenagers and the Health Protection Research Unit on Behavioural Science and Evaluation.
School Aged Immunisation Service (SAIS) providers have continuously been focusing on HPV programme recovery since the pandemic and the school closures, and have robust catch-up plans in place for HPV vaccination based on population need, and utilising opportunities from the HPV programme change in September 2023 to deliver further catchup activities from the academic year 2023/24 using innovative models.
The UKHSA monitors uptake for immunisation programmes for teenagers. Annual published statistics help local NHS Screening and Immunisation teams develop plans to improve uptake and reduce inequalities in collaboration with key partners, including Directors of Public Health, and teams in local authorities.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to educate young people about the importance of health screening programmes in later life.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Health education is mandated from key stages one to four. One of its overarching objectives is teaching pupils about physical health and mental wellbeing, to give them the information that they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing. This should enable them to recognise what is normal and what is an issue in themselves, and when issues arise, how to seek support as early as possible from appropriate sources.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data her Department collects on the uptake of abdominal aortic aneurysm screening; and what steps she is taking to target this programme at people at greater risk.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions screening programmes, including for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA). NHS England collects uptake data for the AAA screening programme, for coverage of the initial scan, coverage of the quarterly surveillance scan, for men with a medium aneurysm, and coverage of the annual surveillance scan, for men with a small aneurysm. NHS England publishes quarterly Key Performance Indicator reports, and an Annual Standards Report, both of which are available at the respective links below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/nhs-population-screening-programmes-kpi-reports
NHS England is working to improve uptake, including for men at greatest risk, as data shows that men living in more deprived areas are at greater risk from having an AAA. In addition, the Department has published guidance on reducing inequalities in the AAA programme, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her expected timescale is for the availability of the Galleri blood test in cancer testing and diagnosis across the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS-Galleri trial is looking into the use of a new blood test to see if it can help the National Health Service to detect cancer early, when used alongside existing cancer screening. The trial recruited the target of 140,000 participants, and interim results are expected in spring or summer 2024.
If the trial is successful, the NHS has committed to rolling out up to one million Galleri tests in 2024 and 2025, as part of an interim implementation pilot. The clinical trial is currently planned to conclude in 2025, with results expected in 2026.
Should the final results be positive, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) may consider the use of the test in a national screening programme. A UK NSC-recommended national screening programme would need to consider the effectiveness of the test, balancing the risk of false positives and unnecessary invasive treatments, against potential early detection.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to expand the scope of the NHS Health Check to (a) include a wider range of clinical checks for identifying (i) cardiovascular disease (CVD) and (ii) CVD-risk conditions and (b) take place in (A) the community, (B) workplaces and (C) other new settings.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is taking forward a scheme of work to modernise the NHS Health Check programme, and to deliver on recommendations from the 2021 review of the programme. We are currently focused on the development and launch of a digital NHS Health Check, to be launched later this year, and rolled out nationally over the next four years. Following the launch of a digital check, the Department will consider the evidence for, and practicality of, expanding the scope of the NHS Health Check. This will include consideration of introducing a wider range of clinical checks, and considering a younger target age group.
Local authorities can design and deliver NHS Health Checks to suit the needs of their local population. This includes who provides the service, and in what settings it is delivered. In some areas, NHS Health Checks are already delivered in community and workplace settings. To build the evidence of the feasibility and impact of this approach, we are investing up to £10 million into a pilot, to deliver cardiovascular disease checks in workplace settings during 2024/25.