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 expand cancer treatment capacity within the NHS.

The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including cancer services. The plan aims to ensure that the number of people waiting more than 62 days to start treatment following suspected cancer will return to pre-pandemic levels by March 2023. The Government has allocated more than £8 billion to the NHS in England from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity, including cancer services.