Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many cancer patients met the 62-day treatment target between urgent GP referral and first definitive treatment in (1) 2020, (2) 2021, (3) 2022, and (4) 2023 to date; and what steps they are taking to reduce waiting times for patients who have been diagnosed with cancer and are waiting for their treatment.

The number of cancer patients that met the 62-day treatment target between urgent general practitioner referral and first definitive treatment in 2020 was 113,704; in 2021 was 119,302; in 2022 was 111,649 and in 2023 to date where most recent data is available till September 2023 is 83,129.

The Department is taking steps to reduce cancer treatment waiting times across England, including the time between diagnosis and commencement of treatment for cancer. The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.

In the 2023/24 Operational Planning Guidance, NHS England announced it is providing over £390 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances in each of the next two years to support delivery of the strategy and the operational priorities for cancer which includes increasing and prioritising diagnostic and treatment capacity for cancer.

Additionally, the Government recently published the Major Conditions Strategy Case for Change and Our Strategic Framework on 14 August 2023 which sets out our approach to making the choices over the next five years that will deliver the most value in facing the health challenges of today and of the decades ahead, including for cancer.