Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Baron and Helen Whately

Tuesday 11th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

3. What steps he is taking to implement section 5 of the Health and Care Act 2022.

[The Minister for Social Care (Helen Whately)]

In accordance with section 5 of the Health and Care Act 2022, the Secretary of State’s mandate to NHS England for this year set out ambitious objectives to improve outcomes for cancer patients, including the specific aims of improving one-year and five-year survival of all cancers.

[Mr Baron]

Many on the Conservative Benches are pleased that section 5 is finally being implemented, but we would urge the Government to ensure, when consulting on the NHS mandate, that the focus is on outcomes such as the one-year survival rate to encourage earlier diagnosis, and is not watered down in favour of softer objectives such as patient experience surveys, because patients may not be aware of how badly the NHS compares on international survival rates, as recent research from the King’s Fund has shown.