Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the backlog for cancer treatment in the West Midlands.

We will improve National Health Service cancer waiting time performance so that cancer patients are diagnosed and treated faster, including patients in the West Midlands.

We set out expectations for renewed focus on cancer targets in the Elective Reform plan, published on 6 January 2025. Our reforms to cancer care will see thousands of patients starting treatment within two months, and across the NHS we have already hit our target of delivering two million extra operations, scans, and appointments seven months early.