Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle inequalities in cancer outcomes between integrated care board areas.

Reducing variation in cancer treatment is a strategic priority for the NHS Cancer Programme. There are four long-running audits on lung, oesophago-gastric, bowel and prostate cancer and the NHS Cancer Programme has commissioned five new cancer clinical audits, covering ovarian, pancreatic, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney, and primary and metastatic breast cancers. These will provide timely evidence for cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, increase the consistency of access to treatments and help stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes for patients. The Royal College of Surgeons began work on this audit in October last year with the first outcomes expected in 2024.