Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Kendall Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his understanding of the importance of transparency. He will welcome the fact that we are now saving 1,000 more lives a month as a result of focusing on the five-year survival rates. But that transparency must apply to CCGs as well, and discussions are ongoing with NHS England as to the best way to do that for lots of things, including cancer.

[Liz Kendall (Leicester West) (Lab)]

Last week, we learned that the 62-day target for cancer treatment has been missed for a full 12 months:

“This isn’t just about missed targets–consecutive breaches mean thousands of patients are being failed. These targets exist to ensure swift diagnosis of cancer and access to treatment, which is vital if we’re serious about having the best survival rates in the world.”

Those are not my words; they are an exact quote from Cancer Research UK. Which bit of it does the Secretary of State disagree with?

[Mr Hunt]

I do not disagree with it, but I will tell the hon. Lady why we are missing that one target. Incidentally, we are hitting the seven other targets. We are treating and diagnosing so many more people, with 560,000 more diagnoses every year. That means that in this Parliament we are treating 700,000 more people than were treated in Labour’s last Parliament, saving 1,000 more lives a month. If the hon. Lady looks at some of the other things that Cancer Research UK says, she will see that it welcomes that strongly.