Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the number of specialists required in the cancer workforce by 2030.

Health Education England published its first ever Cancer Workforce Plan in December 2017, which commits to an expansion in the cancer workforce. The recommendations from this plan include actions to ensure there are enough staff with the right skills to deliver the funded activity set out in the Cancer Taskforce Strategy by 2021, and focuses on priority professions to do this.

HEE intends to produce a longer-term strategy that looks at the workforce needs beyond 2021. This planning is now being fully aligned with the National Health Service long term plan and associated ambitions for further development of cancer services. This will include exploring sustainable growth beyond 2021 in key professions through continued investment in training places, with a greater focus on attracting and retaining students and improving the numbers of qualified professionals who go on to work in the NHS.