Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve cancer outcomes.

We are committed to transforming cancer services. The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and improving this country’s cancer survival rates. Having consulted with key stakeholders and patient groups, I confirm that the plan will be published early in the new year.

We will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners. We have already invested £70 million in new radiotherapy machines. The Government is investing an extra £26 billion in the NHS and is opening up community diagnostic centres at evening and weekends, to help catch cancer earlier.

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

The NHS has exceeded its pledge to deliver an extra two million appointments, having now delivered over five million more appointments as the first step to ensuring earlier and faster access to treatment.

Additionally, reducing inequalities is a key priority for the National Cancer Plan, which will look at the targeted improvements needed across different cancer types to reduce disparities in cancer survival. This includes looking at protected characteristics, such as ethnicity, as well as inequalities related to socioeconomic status, and geographic location.