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 reduce the number of NHS Cancer waiting time targets; and if he will make a statement.

The Department has taken steps to work with NHS England to reduce the number of cancer waiting time targets within the National Health Service. Following a review of cancer waiting times standards by Professor Sir Steve Powis, and a consultation last year, clinical experts in the NHS recommended modernising and simplifying cancer waiting time standards to focus on three outcome-based standards. On 17 August 2023, NHS England announced changes to cancer waiting times standards; more specifically, there will be a Faster Diagnosis Standard of a maximum 28-day wait for communication of a definitive cancer/not cancer diagnosis for patients referred urgently or those identified by NHS cancer screening. There will be a maximum 62-day wait to first treatment from urgent general practitioner referral, NHS cancer screening or consultant upgrade. There will be a maximum 31-day wait from decision to treat to any cancer treatment starting for all cancer patients.

These standards will give clinicians greater flexibility to adopt new technologies such as remote image review and artificial intelligence, and avoid disincentivising modern working practices such as one-stop shops and straight-to-test. The Department supports these changes and will amend the relevant statutory regulations in due course, as shared in the Written Ministerial Statement of my Rt. hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, HCWS1001, published on 4 September 2023.