FIVE million Brits will have genes tested on the NHS to better predict their risk of serious illness.
Volunteers will have their DNA analysed for free under the ambitious five-year plan.
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Participants will be given a report calculating their risk of major conditions, such as heart disease or cancer.
Ministers claim individuals will then be advised to make lifestyle changes or offered preventive drugs.
The anonymised data will also be used by the NHS to improve treatments for major killers.
Officials have yet to reveal how the five million participants will be recruited. But plans to give healthy people the option of paying to have their DNA analysed by the NHS have been scrapped.
Health Minister Baroness Blackwood said: “Prioritising research and innovation means we can unlock solutions to deadly conditions like cancer, dementia and heart disease — saving lives and securing the health of the next generation.”
The Government will put £79million into the scheme, backed by £160million from charities and businesses.
As well as testing, the cash would be used to support research on early diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases, such as cancer and dementia.
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Prof Sir John Bell, who leads the programme, said: “It will put the UK at the forefront of global research into early diagnosis and help us shift the standard in healthcare for ever. We have a vision to live in a world where you prevent disease rather than treat it too late.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock backs the roll-out.
Earlier this year he revealed he learnt he has an increased risk of prostate cancer from a DNA check.
