Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to speed up the process of patients receiving cancer tests and diagnoses.

The independent Cancer Taskforce published the Cancer Strategy for England in July 2015. A major recommendation of the Strategy was a new cancer waiting times target that, by 2020, National Health Service cancer patients will be given a definitive diagnosis or the all clear within 28 days of being referred by a general practitioner. The Faster Diagnosis Standard is currently being tested in five local health economies. This project is being independently evaluated, with an interim evaluation report delivered in May 2017. A final report is due is May 2018, which will inform national roll-out.