5. Will the First Minister provide an update on NHS population-based national screening programmes across Wales? OQ58554

Population screening is a core public health responsibility. Public Health Wales provide cancer screening services. It oversees improvements to programmes, including the recent extension in the age cohort eligible for bowel screening in Wales.

Can I thank the First Minister for that response? We have an excellent screening programme in Wales. I welcome the reduction in the age for screening for bowel cancer. I believe in the importance of screening, but it is unfortunate that people cannot get time off work to attend screening. Will the First Minister support all directly and indirectly employed Welsh Government staff being allowed time to attend screening appointments? 

I'm very happy to confirm to the Member that all people who are directly employed by the Welsh Government are entitled to time off to attend screening appointments. I would have thought it would be entirely in the interests of any employer to make sure that they support their staff in doing so. The most important asset that any employer has will be the people who work for that service or that business, and the very effective screening services that we have here in Wales will help to keep those staff members fit, well and capable of being in work. So, I think it is not simply in the interest of the individual but it's in the interest of the business as well. 

If I could, maybe, just referring to what Mike Hedges said about the age extension of bowel screening, just give one illustration of the effectiveness of those programmes. If someone with bowel cancer has that cancer detected as a by-product of emergency intervention in their lives because of other things that have gone wrong, five out of 10 of those people will survive. If someone is diagnosed by their GP as having bowel cancer, seven out of 10 of those people will survive. If your bowel cancer is diagnosed as a result of screening, nine out of 10 people will survive, and that just demonstrates, doesn't it, the real significance of those screening services. And we want to improve the uptake of bowel screening and other screening services. So, it's absolutely in the interests of individuals, but it's equally in the interests of people who employ them as well to make sure that, when you see figures of survival of that sort, people should be released where they need to be released for a screening service to which they've been invited.

Thank you, First Minister, for these figures. First Minister, shamefully, we lag behind other nations in offering them a bowel cancer screening service to people aged 50 and over. This is a national disgrace. People living in Scotland and in England are offered bowel cancer screening, and have done for years. It is quite unbelievable that you've not extended the screening programme to that age group. What is the challenge in Wales that appears specific to Wales, and will you commit to bringing forward an extension of the services to people who have turned 50? Thank you.

Well, Llywydd, I'm afraid I don't recognise the description offered by the Member. As you heard Mike Hedges say, the age range of people eligible for bowel screening in Wales is being extended, and there is a very purposeful plan to go on reducing that age and, at the same time, to make the test itself more effective in diagnosis. Bowel cancer screening in Wales, particularly since the new test, the faecal immunochemical test, was introduced in January 2019, is a success story. We are persuading more people to take it up than ever before. The results they get are more accurate than they ever have been, and as a result of lowering the age range, an additional 172,000 people will be invited for screening between October, this month, and September of next year. I think that is a success story, and it's a tribute to those very dedicated people who have worked so hard to make it a success.