Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to provide specific funding for increasing the number of staff in the breast cancer workforce who deliver systemic anti-cancer treatment.

In 2023/24 NHS England will fund an expansion of cancer and diagnostics specialists, including those who will deliver systemic anti-cancer treatment. This includes, additional medical training places including for clinical/medical oncology, radiology, histopathology, and gastroenterology, grants to enable over 1,000 cancer nurse specialists and chemotherapy nurses to step into these roles or support their development in-role and a wider workforce development through establishing diagnostic training academies, including breast imaging and developing cancer support worker training.

Spending plans for individual budgets for 2024/25, including for the cancer workforce, are subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and will be finalised in due course. Spending plans for subsequent years will be subject to future spending reviews.