Good governance and the development of an ethical framework for the UK National Screening Committee

Abstract

Following COVID-19, good governance of public health is self-evidently a priority. Those who have governance responsibilities should act with integrity, and public health interventions should be both effective and ethically sound. In this context, this article focuses on the work recently undertaken by the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) in reviewing how it engages with and resolves the ethical questions raised by health screening. The article sketches the context for this review and the challenges faced; it describes the review process and the principal review outputs (including the ethical framework); and it reflects on a number of issues that are provoked by the ethical framework. Given the post-pandemic re-organisation of public health, the importance of embedding ethics in screening practice is underlined. If the United Kingdom is to be a standard-bearer for world-leading screening, it is essential that the NSC sustains its commitment to the ideals of good governance.