Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the NICE (NG12) Suspected Cancer: Recognition and referral guidelines.

The Department has not made an assessment of the effectiveness of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guideline on suspected cancer. NICE keeps all its guidance under review and its guideline on the recognition and referral of suspected cancer was updated in April 2026. There are no current plans for a further update of the guideline, including a review of the age criteria for urgent investigations within two-weeks.