Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the size of the cancer backlog resulting from the covid-19 outbreak in terms of (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment and care; and what (i) planning, (ii) investment and (iii) priority his Department is providing to tackle that backlog.

Cancer diagnosis and treatment has remained a priority throughout the pandemic, with 2.26 million general practitioner urgent cancer referrals and over 570,000 people treated for cancer between March 2020 and March 2021.

Local systems, drawing on advice and analysis from their Cancer Alliance, will ensure that there is sufficient diagnostic and treatment capacity in place to meet the cancer needs over the course of the year.

Cancer patients will benefit from the additional £1 billion announced within Spending Review 2020 to tackle the elective backlog. The priorities set out in the Operational Planning and Guidance 2021/22 for recovering cancer services focuses on reducing the number of people waiting for more than 62 days to pre-pandemic levels.