Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the current status of prostate cancer screening, in light of the UK National Screening Committee’s recent decision to not offer universal screening.
Scotland’s screening policy, as is the case in the other nations of the UK, is guided by the recommendations of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). Before making any recommendations, the UK NSC considers the best available evidence to establish whether the harms of screening outweigh the benefits.
On 28 May, the UK NSC recommended that prostate screening should be offered to men aged 45 to 61 with both a confirmed BRCA2 gene variant and a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic or prostate cancer.
The Minister for Mental Wellbeing, Public Health, Sport, Alcohol and Drugs, Maree Todd, welcomes and accepts this recommendation. As an immediate priority we are working to consider how the current system for cancer surveillance across our Health Boards can be strengthened to bring us in line with the UK NSC Recommendation. In parallel, work will explore what might be needed to formalise the existing system as a national screening programme.
The UK NSC will continue to gather evidence on the impact of screening on other groups, particularly through the TRANSFORM trial. The Scottish Government will support this evidence gathering in any way it can.