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 (a) tackle the backlog of cancer screenings and (b) shorten the referral time for treatment for patients in north east London.

Bowel screening in London is within national standards while cervical screening services are expected to recover its sample deficit by July 2021. The YouScreen cervical self-sampling project is also taking place within some practices in north east London to support increase in coverage. We are also looking to increase the offer of choice for cervical sampling options for women through expanding commissioning of cervical screening in sexual health services. Breast screening services in north east London are expected to tackle their backlogs by March 2022.

We have invested £1 billion to help the NHS recover from the pandemic and begin to address backlogs in elective care, with cancer care a key priority. Decisions on funding affecting patients in North East London are being made at local levels.