Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make a comparative assessment of prostate cancer diagnosis rates in (a) Basingstoke, (b) Hampshire and (c) England.

No comparative assessment has been made. However, data for prostate cancer diagnosis rates are collected by integrated care board (ICB), both Basingstoke and Hampshire are located within the Hampshire and Isle of White ICB. The following table shows this data up to 2022:

For comparison, the following table shows the national data for 2022:

The Department is supporting the National Health Service in taking steps to speed up and improve the efficiency of diagnostic pathways. This includes the introduction of a best-practice timed pathway for prostate cancer so that those suspected of having prostate cancer receive a multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging scan first; this ensures only those men most at risk of having cancer undergo an invasive biopsy. For patients, the prostate best-practice timed pathway may reduce anxiety and uncertainty of a possible cancer diagnosis, with less time between referral and receiving the outcome of a diagnostic test.

Furthermore, NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme published guidance in April 2024 to support the implementation of good practice in management of prostate cancer, which includes ensuring the diagnostic pathways for prostate cancer were implemented from primary care setting to secondary care presentation.