Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent estimate he has made of vacancies in the NHS diagnostic workforce; and what assessment he has made of the implications of that number of vacancies for (a) meeting cancer waiting time targets and (b) introducing FIT to bowel screening to the level planned.

The data on the number of vacancies in the National Health Service diagnostic workforce is not available centrally.

NHS Digital collects data on the number of advertised vacancies across the NHS. The NHS vacancy statistics for the period 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 shows there were 1,261 full-time equivalent vacancies with ‘diagnostic’ in the title.

The NHS is meeting six out of eight cancer waiting times standards (August 2017). This is despite 970,000 more people being urgently referred in 2016/17 compared to 2009/10 - an increase of 108%.

Specific work has been taking place on the recruitment of Clinical (non-medical) Endoscopists. Progress is on track to meet the target of 200 new non-medical Endoscopists by the end of 2018.

This work is taking place alongside a greater focus on the 62 day cancer waiting time target with investments in pathway coordinators and redesigned, quicker clinical pathways.

Public Health England, which leads the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) screening programme, is working with Health Education England and others to understand the training and capacity demand deriving from the introduction of FIT in April 2018.