Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on the adequacy of the data available to help clinical staff reduce the time taken to (a) diagnose and (b) treat cancer patients in (i) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency, (ii) Staffordshire and (iii) England.

Officials in the Department regularly engage with NHS England on the adequacy of the data available, to improve performance against cancer waiting times.

The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) is introducing primary care symptom-based pathways, designed to support cancer referrals and to reduce the number of referrals into cancer pathways, where the risk of cancer is very low or more effective alternative referral pathways exist. The ICB intends to pilot clinical decision tools, which will prompt general practitioners to order relevant tests and suggest alternative referral pathways.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced that a National Cancer Plan for England will be published this year, supporting the Prime Minister’s mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future and reduce the number of lives lost to cancer. The plan will outline how we will improve outcomes for all cancer patients, by speeding up diagnosis and treatment and ensuring access to the latest treatments and technologies.