Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure the experiences of, and quality of life for, people with a less survivable cancer are monitored by national mechanisms to allow issues in care and support to be identified and addressed.

The Cancer Patient Experience Survey captures experiences from people treated for cancer, including those with less survivable cancers. Due to the need for statistical robustness, there is a time lag between the experience of treatment and the issue of the survey questionnaires. The Picker Institute reviewed the survey in 2018 and revised guidance to trusts to streamline preparations for the survey, ensured consistency in fieldwork across trusts to reduce delays in data collection and centralised checks on survey samples.

The national cancer quality of life survey in England was launched in September 2020 to introduce an innovative quality of life metric to track and respond to the long-term impact of cancer. The first report of the survey was published on 26 October 2021 and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/cancer-quality-of-life-survey-summary-report-first-data-release-october-2021/