Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of prostate cancer services in (a) South Holland and The Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.

The Department is committed to improving the adequacy of all cancer services including for prostate cancer, this includes cancer services in South Holland and The Deepings and Lincolnshire.

NHS England has funded 10 clinical audits, including a national prostate cancer audit. Using routine data, collected on patients diagnosed with cancer in a National Health Service setting, the audit is looking at what is being done well, where it is being done well, and what needs to be done better. This will seek to reduce unwarranted variation in treatment and reduce inequalities across different groups.

The Government recognises that a cancer-specific approach is needed to meet the challenges in cancer care, and to improve all cancer services and outcomes for people living with cancer including those with prostate cancer. Following publication of the 10-Year Health Plan, we will publish a new national cancer plan, which will include further details on how we will improve cancer services across England.

We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be and will provide updates on this in due course.