Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the £3 billion funding allocated to support the NHS recovery from the effect of covid-19 at the Spending Review 2020 will be invested in (a) cancer diagnostics, (b) radiotherapy treatments and (c) the cancer workforce.

The Spending Review 2020 confirmed an additional £3 billion for the National Health Service on top of the long-term settlement, to support the recovery from the impact of COVID-19. This includes approximately £1 billion to begin tackling the elective backlog and approximately £1.5 billion to help ease existing pressures caused by COVID-19. This package will be supported by £325 million capital funding for NHS diagnostics to replace over two thirds of imaging equipment over 10 years old.

The Spending Review 2020 will also provide £260 million to continue to increase the NHS workforce and support commitments made in the NHS Long Term Plan. Full details on funding allocations in 2021-22, including for NHS cancer workforce and cancer diagnostics, will be subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and finalised in due course.