Women will be offered mammograms and smear tests in their lunch breaks, in a bid to reverse a steep decline in the take up of checks.

And GPs could be paid extra to offer checks at evenings and weekends, in an attempt to drive up Britain’s cancer survival rates.

A major review of NHS screening today calls for a major overhaul of the current system, warning that repeated delays and blunders by those in charge of it are costing lives.

Under the plans, women will be offered the chance to have checks in GP surgeries or clinics near their work, while remaining registered with a local family doctor.

Former cancer tsar Prof Sir Mike Richards was asked to examine the system - which also covers bowel cancer, aortic aneurism and diabetic eye disease - following a series of scandals.

His damning report today warns that lives have been lost because of the way the programmes have been run.

Responsibility for screening is shared among a number of bodies, leading to “confusion, delays and risks to patient safety” he says.

It calls for Public Health England to be stripped of responsibility for delivering the programme, a recommendation which the Health Secretary immediately accepted.