Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were told they had been taken off of the cancer Patient Tracking List in each of the last 12 months.

The cancer Patient Tracking List (PTL) is a monitoring tool used by hospitals for management of their waiting lists. Data is not collected on whether patients are notified about their removal from the PTL. However, a patient is removed from the 62-day pathway and PTL monitoring when:

- the organisation communicates to the patient that a cancer diagnosis has been excluded;

- a first definitive treatment has been completed or permitted enabling treatment;

- a patient declines treatment;

- a patient chooses to receive treatment privately; and

- death occurs before treatment.