Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to hold discussions with his counterparts in the devolved Administrations on co-ordinating national cancer registries in their (a) collection, (b) analysis and (c) reporting of blood cancer data.

There are no current plans to hold discussions with the devolved administrations on co-ordinating national cancer registries. The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS), which includes the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service, is a member of the United Kingdom and Ireland Association of Cancer Registries (UKIACR). The UKIACR has interests in all aspects of cancer registration, both in its methodology and in its application, to the collection, analysis, and publication of population-based data on the incidence, mortality, and survivability from cancer, and in the use of this data for research aimed at controlling cancer in the population. More details are available at the following link:

https://ukiacr.org/about/ukiacr-constitution

Staff from the NDRS attend quarterly UKIACR executive meetings, where collaboration and standardisation, where possible, of the collection and reporting of cancer data is discussed. NDRS analysts also attend quarterly meetings with UKIACR analysts, where detailed discussions are held to ascertain any differences in the reporting of cancer data, and how these can be made analogous. Annual performance indicators, including key performance indicators for haematology, are available at the following link:

https://ukiacr.org/kpis

England and Wales use the same cancer registration information and communication technology environment, and contracts are held between England, Wales, and Scotland, respectively, to provide the mechanisms to collect and store radiotherapy data.