Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve (a) diagnosis and (b) referral rates for 13–24-year-olds with cancer.

We are committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, so that more patients survive this horrible set of diseases. This includes children, teenagers, and young adults.

The Department is taking steps to improving waiting times for cancer diagnosis across all cancer patient groups in England. We will start by delivering an extra 40,000 scans, appointments, and operations each week to ensure that patients are seen as quickly as possible.

We are also working with the NHS to maximise the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing Community Diagnostic Centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer. This will help us continue to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard, which aims to ensure that over 75% patients have cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days of referral from a general practice (GP) or screening service.

To support timely and effective referrals, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has set out detailed guidance for GPs on the symptoms of cancer in children and young people, recommending referral within 48 hours for those presenting with a range of potential cancer symptoms.

Lord Darzi’s independent investigation into the NHS highlighted that there is more to be done to increase the speed at which patients are diagnosed with and treated for cancer. His report will inform our 10-year plan to reform the NHS, which will include further details on how we will improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes. This includes children and young people.

On 21 October 2024, the Department launched a national engagement exercise to inform the plan. We encourage people and organisations who would like to share their views on the priorities of children and young people with cancer to do so via the online platform, change.NHS.UK. Following the engagement exercise, the Department will carefully consider how the priorities of this group should be reflected in the plan and any subsequent work.