Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the success of the Cancer Recovery Plan for services in London; and what further steps he plans to take to mitigate the disparity in cancer related health outcomes for different communities in London beyond March 2021.

The Cancer Services Recovery Plan, published in December 2020, aims to restore urgent referrals at least to pre-pandemic levels, to reduce the number of people waiting over 62 days from urgent referral and ensure sufficient capacity to meet demand.

The latest data from December shows that in London:

- 30,236 people were referred on the urgent two week wait pathway in December 2020, 4% more than in December 2019;

- 2,690 people started a first treatment for cancer in December, 7% more than in December 2019, and 96.9% of those people did so within 31 days; and

- Of those, 1,502 people started treatment via the urgent pathway, 12% more than in December 2019.

Through the NHS Long Term Plan, the NHS Cancer Programme is committed to improve access to treatments for all cancer patients and reduce health inequalities. Cancer Alliances are working with local sustainability and transformation partnerships and integrated care systems to reduce variation on patient outcomes and experience.