Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect of workforce shortages on cancer treatment waiting times.

No assessment has been made.

The Government is committed to reducing cancer waiting times and has worked with NHS England to publish the elective recovery delivery plan in February 2022, backed by funding of £8 billion, to drive up elective activity. This is further supported by £2.3 billion to expand diagnostic services, including the role of community diagnostic centres prioritising cancer services.

In 2023/24, NHS England is continuing to invest £50 million in the priorities set out in the Cancer workforce plan, including additional medical training places for clinical and medical oncology, radiology, histopathology and gastroenterology.

As of February 2023, there were 33,174 full-time equivalent staff in the cancer workforce in National Health Service trusts in England, including histopathologists, gastroenterologists, clinical radiologists, medical and clinical oncologists and diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers.

In January 2023, Health Education England announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts have been created for this year, including more than 500 in the key areas of mental health and cancer treatment.