Evidence review criteria: national screening programmes
UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) criteria for appraising the viability, effectiveness and appropriateness of a screening programme.
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This document sets out the criteria for the UK National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC) process of reviewing evidence for population and targeted screening programmes.
The criteria and evidence thresholds to assess proposals for population or targeted screening programmes are slightly different. This reflects that randomised controlled trials of screening may not be feasible or ethical in certain high-risk population groups. Where these studies are feasible they remain the expected standard in both targeted and population screening. There is a risk that this difference in criteria may cause a disparity in evidence or feasibility requirements between population and targeted screening programmes. This could potentially lead to a larger number of targeted screening programmes being recommended with a disproportionate amount of resource (for example, funding and workforce) being earmarked for targeted screening programmes.
In order to mitigate this risk, the 4 chief medical officers (CMOs) recommend that the UK NSC reviews the outcomes of the targeted screening criteria regularly to ensure they are still relevant and pitched at the correct threshold level to reduce population inequalities.
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Updates to this page
Published 1 January 2013Last updated 29 September 2022 + show all updates
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Amendment to targeted screening criteria to reflect that randomised controlled trials of screening may not be feasible or ethical in certain high-risk population groups
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Update to publication pending following expanded remit of the UKNSC.
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Updated criteria in line with UK NSC review recommendations.
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First published.