Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to reschedule cancer operations that have been cancelled during the covid-19 crisis outbreak.

One of the key priorities outlined in the third phase of the National Health Service response to COVID-19 is to reduce the number of patients who have waited longer than 62 days from urgent referral to starting cancer treatment.

Action to reduce long waits includes expanding the capacity of COVID-19 secure cancer hubs, prioritising people for surgery centrally on the basis of clinical need and drawing on the independent sector to increase capacity.