Dame Diana Johnson

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) for opening this important debate and setting out so clearly the questions he wants answered. I want to begin by acknowledging the strength of feeling behind the petition. More than 100,000 people have signed it and a large number of right hon. and hon. Members in the Chamber have made very powerful speeches. I will reflect on the issues raised; I will try to address as many of the points in my contribution this afternoon, but if I do not answer every question, I will reflect on them and I will certainly write to the shadow Minister. There is a very real desire for us to do more to diagnose prostate cancer effectively, treat it earlier and ultimately save more lives. I am grateful to Members from across the House who have spoken so openly about their own experiences and those of their constituents, friends and families. I too am thinking of all those individuals facing a prostate cancer diagnosis and undergoing treatment at this time, and I was very pleased to hear that our former colleague, Gary Streeter, is doing well. I am sure that the whole House sends him our best wishes. As we have heard, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the United Kingdom. Around 68,000 men are diagnosed in the UK each year, and although survival rates are high, tragically, around 12,000 men still die from prostate cancer every year. Every one of those deaths is a loss to their family, friends and community. The Government are determined to improve outcomes for men with prostate cancer. The UK National Screening Committee advises all four nations. Scottish officials are present at committee meetings and officials in the Department of Health and Social Care work with their counterparts across the devolved Governments to share information and good practice. In June, we announced England’s first targeted prostate cancer screening programme. From 2027, eligible men aged 45 to 61 with a BRCA2 gene variant and a family history of prostate, breast, pancreatic or ovarian cancer will be offered a PSA test every two years. We are working with the UK Cancer Genetics Group to identify further men who will be eligible for screening. That is an important step forward, but I recognise that for many it does not go far enough. The petition asks the Government to go further than the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation and introduce screening for all men at higher risk. I understand that ambition and I share the determination behind it, but we have a responsibility to ensure that the evidence tells us that, when we introduce screening, it will do more good than harm. That balance is particularly difficult with prostate cancer, as we have heard from some of the medically qualified Members. Unlike many other cancers, prostate cancer is often slow growing, and many men who develop it will never experience symptoms or come to any harm from it. At the same time, treatment can have profound consequences. More than half of those treated experience significant side effects, including bladder leakage, bowel incontinence and erectile dysfunction. When we talk about the harms of screening and overtreatment, we are not talking about something abstract; we are talking about potentially lasting consequences affecting a man’s health, dignity and quality of life.