Jim Shannon

I am of an age—I am not sure many others are in this Chamber—where I get a test for bowel cancer every year. A kit is sent out to do the job. Thankfully, every time I have done a bowel cancer test it has come back negative. To be fair, the NHS has a good system for that. When someone reaches 60, they are sent a test. They do the test and the NHS comes back very quickly. If something is wrong, they will hear right away. Although we sometimes criticise the NHS—rightly so—we should always recognise the good things that the NHS does. The hon. Gentleman was right to bring that up; I thank him for that. The questions regarding cancer care in England are the same as for Northern Ireland: “How can we get the best outcome with what we currently have?” and “How can we plan to do better in the future?” Neither are easy questions, but the fact that some 9,000 new cancer diagnoses are made every year in Northern Ireland—these are drastic figures—in a population of 1.85 million, equating to one in two people developing cancer in their lives, means this issue must be a priority for us all. I know that in his response the Minister will give us some positives in relation to where we are—I expect that, knowing the nature of the Minister—but it would also be helpful if we could have some idea about how we can better address this issue together, across this whole United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.