Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) support the capacity of Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy services, and (2) adopt new treatments for blood cancer patients.

The Department continues to support the National Health Service in England to increase cancer treatment capacity. NHS England had previously established a task-and-finish group to gather, collate, and compile available information to establish Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy delivery capacity, and to generate recommendations for the short, medium, and longer term to alleviate any identified pressures on service delivery.

The adoption of new treatments into NHS England is generally the result of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance and commissioner decisions. Implementation of any NICE approvals will be supported by a service readiness assessment and the development of additional capacity where necessary.

However, NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund supports rapid access for NHS patients to the most promising new cancer medicines through managed access agreements, while further real-world evidence is collected where there is too much uncertainty for the NICE to be able to recommend routine funding.

Additionally, the Department is committed to implementing the recommendations of Lord O'Shaughnessy’s review into commercial clinical trials, making sure that the United Kingdom leads the world in clinical trials, and that innovative, lifesaving treatments are accessible to NHS patients, including those with blood cancer.