Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to reduce the shortfall in breast cancer specialists.

We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again. We will ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it, including for breast cancer.

Clinical radiologists play a key role in the breast clinician workforce, by supporting breast screening and symptomatic services. To help address shortfalls in the breast cancer workforce, NHS England is expanding specialty training places in clinical radiology to grow the future pipeline of clinicians involved in breast cancer care. Recruitment of trainees to the clinical radiology specialty has increased from an average of 234 trainees per year, between 2016 and 2020, to an average of 300, between 2021 and 2025, an expansion of 75 specialty trainee places per year.