Cancer: Health Services and Research

(asked on 11th May 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support the efforts to (a) improve cancer services across the NHS and (b) find a lasting cure for cancer.


Answered by
Maria Caulfield Portrait
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This question was answered on 17th May 2022

The NHS Long Term Plan committed to improve cancer services to increase the proportion of cancers diagnosed at Stage 1 and 2 to 75% by 2028. This aims to ensure that an additional 55,000 people each year will survive cancer for at least five years after their diagnosis. We are currently analysing the responses submitted through the call for evidence to develop the 10 Year Cancer Plan, which will be published later this year. The Plan will provide further detail on how we will improve cancer services.

The Department invests in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In 2020/21, the NIHR’s expenditure on cancer research was £73.5 million. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including treatments for cancer, and encourages researchers to submit high-quality research proposals in this area.

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