Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2018 to Question 165015 on breast cancer: surgery, which clinical audit topics have (a) been selected and (b) not yet been selected by NHS England; and what the timescale is for that process.

The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership commissions, develops and manages the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) on behalf of NHS England.

Currently, there are five cancer clinical audits including breast cancer in older people. The newly established NCAPOP partners group will look at opportunities to review the audit programme based on audit commissioning cycle opportunity and eligibility criteria related to alignment with National Health Service priorities, like the forthcoming long-term plan for the NHS, impact, value and need.

NCAPOP is made up of a rolling programme of audits commissioned at different times on a 3-5 year basis.