Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department plans to provide additional support to ICBs to help them to (a) develop a strategy to achieve the 62-day waiting time target for cancer and (b) deliver that target.

The Elective Recovery Plan sets out the ambition of returning the number of people waiting more than 62 days from an urgent referral for cancer, back to pre-pandemic levels. The latest published data shows that the 62-day backlog stands at 23,756, and has fallen 30% since its peak in the pandemic. Whilst it is right to focus on those waiting the longest for cancer treatment, doing so means that it is more difficult to focus on those also waiting too long, but who are nonetheless below the 62-day maximum

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

Despite the challenge of industrial action in particular, the National Health Service is making progress. Over 340,000 people received their first cancer treatment in the 12 months leading to December 2023, up by more than 28,000 compared to the same 12-month period pre-pandemic.

The NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board’s latest published performance against the 62-day referral to treatment waiting time standard was 62.1%, which is 1% higher than performance the previous year

The Government remains committed to continuing its recovery from the pandemic, and specifically, to reduce local and national waiting times for cancer treatment. NHS England has developed an intervention model called tiering, to target support towards the most challenged trusts, to maximise and expand capacity. This includes NHS England working with trusts to develop a support plan to improve performance, which is monitored by regular oversight calls.