Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the cancer plan will contain measures to improve (a) pathology and (b) testing within the (a) overall cancer and (b) triple negative breast cancer pathway.

The Government recognises that a cancer-specific approach is needed to meet the challenges in cancer care, and to improve outcomes for people living with different types of cancer including rare cancers, sub-types of cancer and triple-negative breast cancer.

The Government has set out plans to publish a ten-year health plan to reform the National Health Service. Following publication of the 10-Year Health Plan, we will publish a new national cancer plan. 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.

Data on triple negative breast cancer for England is collected through the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS). An NDRS Quality Assurance Team is in place to identify, investigate, and monitor data quality issues, with over 130 Quality Assurance reports being run each month as well as quarterly reports to assess the completeness of key data.

To drive up the completeness of the data for triple negative breast cancer, progesterone receptor status, human epidermal growth factor receptor in situ hybridization status, and oestrogen receptor status are part of the Cancer Outcomes and Services Data set, which supports national registration.

In January 2025, the Government published the Elective Reform Plan as part of the government’s Plan for Change. The plan sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to ensure that patients, including those waiting for pathology tests are seen on time and have the best possible experience during their care.

To improve the NHS Constitution standard for diagnostics, the cancer waiting time standards and the referral to treatment standard, we expect all community diagnostic centres (CDCs) and hospital-based diagnostic services to be open 12 hours a day, seven days a week so that patients have improved access and availability to diagnostic tests, including pathology.

Productivity and reform in CDCs will also be underpinned by investment in digital interventions. This will include all pathology networks reaching maturity in 2025. Networks are essential for facilitating diagnostic digitisation and ensuring the standardisation of systems needed for sharing results and optimising slot booking capacity. Networks can reduce variation and provide patients with equity of services' quality and efficiency, as well as maximise workforce efficiencies that can help to offset workforce shortages.