Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the Scottish Cancer Referral Guidelines for the rest of the UK to ensure consistent diagnoses of cancer.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) updated referral guidelines for suspected cancer was published in June 2015, ‘Suspected cancer: recognition and referral.’ It was estimated that the updated guideline could save about 5,000 lives a year with general practitioners (GPs) urged to think of cancer sooner and lower the referral threshold for tests. The NHS Long Term Plan also reaffirms that all GPs should use the latest evidence-based guidance from NICE to identify people at risk of cancer.