<p>Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople</p>

Part of 3. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:52 pm on 21 June 2017.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:52, 21 June 2017

As I think I said in the second part of my first answer, we have to be led by the evidence, and if there is evidence that changing the age limit is the right thing to do, then you can expect the Government to do that. But what I don’t think we can do is to set an arbitrary limit on age that is driven by a campaign that isn’t supported by evidence. And that’s really difficult, because I understand the emotion and the understandable impact for people that are outside the screening programme window but nevertheless acquire conditions including cancer. But I just don’t think that any responsible Government is going to be able to say that it’ll make a choice about running a national screening programme outside and without due regard for the evidence that exists on what to do with what we recognise are finite resources in the health service, and the real harm that is done potentially by screening for those who don’t need it, as well as the real gain to be made by an appropriately resourced and high-quality screening programme undertaken across the country.