Cancer Strategy for England

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Thursday 31st October 2024 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Care (Stephen Kinnock)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Betts. I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for raising this vital debate about the future of cancer care and the potential merits of a cancer strategy. I am aware of the impressive work he has done on access to primary care on behalf of his constituents in Wokingham and that, as he very movingly set out in his speech, he is a cancer survivor. I welcome and commend his efforts in campaigning for cancer charities. I understand that he has raised a mind-boggling £800,000 for charity, so I pay huge tribute to him. I also thank and pay tribute to every Member who has spoken today. They have spoken with such clarity and passion, and it became clear that many present have personal experiences of cancer, which adds a poignancy to our discussion that makes it even more powerful.

Access to cancer care is an important issue for many people, and it is at the heart of this Government’s health mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and to reduce the number of lives lost to the biggest killers. Our work will focus on three shifts: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. On cancer services, I reassure the hon. Member for Wokingham and other hon. Members that the Government are absolutely committed to fighting cancer on all fronts, from prevention to diagnosis, from treatment to research. The NHS can be world-leading on cancer care as part of a wider health system that incorporates innovation and technology. It also benefits from access to world-class research and medicines, and we will look to realise the potential of both.

Nearly a third of patients are waiting more than two months for their referral before starting treatment. That is unacceptable, and the Government have made reducing those waiting times a core part of our health mission. Thanks to the hard work of NHS staff, we are now meeting the faster diagnosis standard so that more than 75% of patients get an all-clear or cancer diagnosis in 28 days. However, we know that there is much more to be done. The Chancellor set out yesterday how we will invest in the NHS to deliver 40,000 additional operations, scans and appointments per week as part of our commitment to cut waiting lists, and how we will invest in new radiotherapy machines so that cancer patients have access to the most effective treatment. NHS England is also working to make cancer diagnosis and treatment faster and more efficient through the use of innovative approaches such as teledermatology and faecal immunochemical test kits for risk stratification in bowel cancer.

The NHS has made historic strides in cancer care. Ten-year survival has doubled since the early 1970s—but that rate of improvement slowed in the 2010s, and there is still a lot of work to be done. Early diagnosis and innovative treatments are key to enhancing survival rates and quality of life for cancer patients, so we will ensure that the Government and the NHS work hand in hand with life sciences research institutions and industry to drive the development of new treatments and diagnostics. Members of all parties have rightly raised some of the deadliest cancers, including pancreatic and bowel cancers and cancers affecting children and teenagers. We recognise that different tumours have different diagnostic and treatment pathways, and will consider that as part of our cancer strategy.

Since taking office, this Government have wasted no time in taking steps to accomplish our vision. Earlier this month, we announced funding for a raft of new UK-created therapies for cancer that will be trialled in the UK. Developing early diagnosis technologies is a key aim of the National Institute for Health and Care Research funding. The potential to find cancers earlier will give patients more choice of treatment and enable us to save lives.

We also commissioned an independent investigation of the health service in England, carried out by Lord Darzi. Published in September, Lord Darzi’s report set out in stark terms the profound challenges faced by the health service, and he was honest about the scale of the work that will be needed. He highlighted that people in the UK are more likely to die from cancer than in any other European and English-speaking country, and that improvements to survival rates have slowed. He also pointed to the need to improve waiting times for cancer treatment—particularly curative radiotherapy—and expand access to the most sophisticated treatment options, such as genomic testing. Not enough progress has been made on increasing the number of patients diagnosed at stages 1 and 2—the best way to improve survival. However, Lord Darzi said that there are signs of hope, thanks to the success of initiatives such as the targeted lung health check programme. We are not daunted by the scale of the challenge; we know that we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

In response to the Darzi report, and as part of our mission to build an NHS fit for the future, we have launched an extensive programme of engagement to develop a 10-year health plan. The plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts that I outlined earlier. This will be a team effort. We will listen to, and co-design the plan with, the public, the health workforce, charities, academics and other partners. I encourage every parliamentarian, in this Chamber and right across the House, to get involved in this big national conversation—the biggest conversation we have had about our healthcare and care system since the NHS was founded in 1948. Please go to change.nhs.uk and get involved. There will also be approximately 100 deliberative events around the country so that Members and their constituents can get involved in the big conversation, which will lead to the publication of our 10-year plan strategy in spring 2025.

Organisations such as Cancer Research UK have been at the forefront of advocating for a robust cancer strategy. Their reports highlight the importance of dedicated cancer strategies in driving efforts and impact towards improving cancer research, diagnosis and care. We have launched the Change NHS online portal to facilitate that national conversation and help develop the 10-year health plan. The journey of developing a plan is as important as the plan itself. We want the public and healthcare staff in England, and all other stakeholders and people who care about the future of our health and care system, to share their views, experiences and ideas. The portal opened on 21 October and will run for several months.

To build an NHS fit for the future, we first need to listen. To reduce the number of lives lost to the biggest killers, like cancer, we need to learn from people with lived experience, researchers and our NHS staff. We also recognise the need for leadership by the Government, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has been clear that there needs to be a national cancer plan. We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take and what its relationship to the 10-year health plan and this Government’s wider health mission should be. However, we are clear that we must develop and publish the 10-year health plan in spring 2025, before we can publish a stand-alone cancer strategy. We will provide updates on that in due course. The sequencing is important; it is best to set the strategic framework through the 10-year plan, and then a stand-alone cancer plan will flow from that. I have absolutely heard the message about the need for a cancer strategy loud and clear from hon. Members, and I will convey it to my ministerial colleagues and to officials.

I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham for bringing this important matter to the House, and once again I thank all hon. Members who contributed. I also thank the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer) for the constructive way in which he has engaged in this debate. He asked me a vast range of questions. It is probably better, in the short time that I have available, to say that I will write to him so that I can respond in the detail that is required, which I do not think I can today.

I am pleased to assure hon. Members that rebuilding our NHS and delivering world-class cancer services for every person remains a top priority for this Government. We have wasted no time in taking action, announcing funding that will make innovative treatments accessible to cancer patients. We have published an independent investigation of the health service in England, which has highlighted the challenges that cancer patients face and the scale of the work needed. With input from members of the public, researchers and NHS staff, we are now developing a plan to make the health service fit for the future and to reduce the lives lost to the biggest killers, including cancer.

The foundation of the NHS was, of course, one of the proudest achievements of the Labour Government of 1945 to 1951. We created a service that was right for the 20th century at that time. It now falls to the Labour Administration of 2024 to shape a health and care service that is fit for the 21st century, so let us work together to get our health and care service back on its feet and ready to tackle the scourge of cancer.