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 ensure the consistent implementation of (a) Non-Specific Symptom pathways, (b) GP direct access and (c) NHS England Best Practice Timed Pathways to ensure (i) faster and (ii) earlier diagnosis of people with pancreatic cancer.

NHS England has completed the national roll-out of non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways to support faster diagnosis of cancer in patients who present with symptoms that do not align with a single cancer site.

We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in general practices (GPs), bringing total GP Contract spend to £13.4 billion in 2025/26, the biggest increase in over a decade. NHS England has also expanded GP direct access to diagnostic tests, enabling faster investigation of concerning symptoms.

The National Health Service has also launched a new £2 million programme which is funding 300 GPs to identify pancreatic cancer early by screening high-risk patients over 60 years old with new diabetes diagnoses and unexplained weight loss for urgent testing.

NHS England continues to implement Best Practice Timed Pathways to ensure consistent and faster diagnosis in line with the Faster Diagnosis Standard. Alongside this, it is working with Pancreatic Cancer UK on a Family History Checker to help individuals assess inherited risk, and has launched the National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Register, which supports earlier identification and screening of high-risk individuals.