Guidance

NHS population screening Research Advisory Committee (RAC) Annual Summary: 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021

Updated 1 June 2021

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2021

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-population-screening-research-advisory-committee-approved-projects/nhs-population-screening-research-advisory-committee-rac-annual-summary-1-april-2020-to-31-march-2021

Research advisory committees (RACs) consider applications from researchers and typically involve requests to:

  • get hold of screening programme data
  • invite screening participants to take part in a project
  • obtain screening samples, for example newborn blood spot cards

1. RAC activity

Information in this section relates to number of enquiries and applications by each individual RAC, followed by an annual total.

1.1 Enquiries

The 6 PHE Screening RACs received 71 new enquiries between them during the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.

Number of Enquiries
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) RAC 12
Antenatal and Newborn (ANNB) RAC 19
Bowel cancer screening programme (BCSP) RAC 13
Breast screening programme (BSP) RAC 12
Cervical screening programme (CSP) RAC 8
Diabetic eye screening (DES) RAC 7
Total 71

1.2 Applications

The 6 PHE Screening RACs received 43 new applications – 32 of which were full applications and 11 pre-applications.

RAC full applications pre-applications total
AAA 2 3 5
ANNB 12 2 14
BCSP 6 1 7
BSP 6 0 6
CSP 2 4 6
DES 4 1 5
Total 32 11 43

The number of new enquires and applications received was lower than during the previous year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic some RAC meetings were cancelled early in the year. Following this the RACs successfully adopted virtual meetings, leading to increased participation from members.

2. RAC review outcomes

In total, 22 projects had a fully supported decision from the RACs in the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. This section gives a list of outcomes by each RAC.

2.1 AAA RAC

The AAA RAC met 2 times in 2020 to 2021 – on 7 August 2020 and 21 January 2021.

During those 2 meetings the AAA RAC reviewed 7 applications. Of these:

  • 3 were fully supported
  • 1 was conditionally supported
  • 1 was a pre-application and was provisionally supported
  • 2 were not supported

2.2 ANNB RAC

The ANNB RAC reviews applications relating to all 6 ANNB screening programmes. It met 3 times in 2020 to 2021 – on 10 June 2020, 7 October 2020 and 3 February 2021.

During those 3 meetings, they reviewed 15 applications (see table below).

NHS screening programme Number of applications
Fetal anomaly screening programme (FASP) 1
Infectious diseases in pregnancy screening programme (IDPS) 4
Newborn and infant physical examination (NIPE) screening programme 0
Newborn blood spot (NBS) screening programme 5
Newborn hearing screening programme (NHSP) 4
Sickle cell and thalassaemia (SCT) screening programme 1
Total 15

Of these 15:

  • 7 were fully supported
  • 6 were conditionally supported
  • 2 were pre-applications and were provisionally supported

2.3 BCSP RAC

The BCSP RAC met 3 times in 2020 to 2021 – on 14 July 2020, 22 October 2020 and 19 January 2021.

During those 3 meetings, the BCSP RAC reviewed 9 applications. Of these:

  • 4 were fully supported
  • 1 was a pre-application and was provisionally supported
  • 4 were not supported

2.4 Breast screening programme research advisory committee (BSP RAC)

The BSP RAC met 2 times in 2020 to 2021 – on 16 September 2020 and 9 December 2020.

During those 2 meetings, the BSP RAC reviewed 6 applications. Of these:

  • 3 were fully supported
  • 1 was conditionally supported
  • 2 were not supported

The BSP RAC also held an additional meeting to provide feedback on 3 applications for The Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health and Care award (NHSx/AAC) which could have an impact on the breast screening programme.

2.5 CSP RAC

The CSP RAC met 2 times in 2020 to 2021 – on 30 July 2020 and 29 October 2020.

During those 2 meetings, the CSP RAC reviewed 3 applications. Of these:

  • 2 were fully supported
  • 1 was conditionally supported

2.6 Diabetic eye screening programme research advisory committee (DES RAC)

The DES RAC met 3 times in 2020 to 2021 – on 20 May 2020, 28 October 2020 and 27 January 2021.

During those 3 meetings the DES RAC reviewed 5 applications. Of these:

  • 3 were fully supported
  • 1 was conditionally supported
  • 1 was not supported

3. Impact

Each RAC monitors the findings of projects they support and information is fed back to PHE screening teams. This information can be used to inform screening programmes of new evidence relevant to national policy. We were aware of 16 publications between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021 which received RAC support.

Information about each of these publications and a full list of RAC supported projects is listed in the register of RAC approvals.

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