Statement issued by the Department of Health

19th April, 2006

The Department of Health has today issued the following statement:

The National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme will be rolled out nationally over the next three years. Funding for the first year of the screening programme is being transferred to the National Cancer Screening Team in Sheffield, and Wolverhampton will be the first local screening centre.

We can confirm that the necessary funding will be made available to the National Screening Centre to ensure that the programme is fully rolled out by 2009.We estimate that around £10m will be spent on the first stages of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme.

We have always intended to have a three year phased roll out of this substantial new national programme. You cannot put an entire screening programme in place in a single year, let alone a single day. We said that the whole population would be covered by 2009 and this is what will happen.

We have taken all the practical steps possible to prepare for the roll-out of the programme and minimise the delay. We anticipate a slightly later start than originally intended, with the programme back in line with the schedule from September.

We intend that all five programme hubs will be established and around 14 local screening centres will be operating by Spring 2007 (out of a total of 90 to 100 for full national coverage.) This is a three year phased roll-out and should be completed by December 2009, as planned.

This is an ambitious project, and the bowel cancer screening programme is one of the first of its kind in Europe.