Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to allocate a proportion of the Spending Review 2020 commitments to tackle (a) diagnostic and (b) treatment backlogs in cancer services.

The Spending Review 2020 confirmed an additional £3 billion for the National Health Service on top of the long-term settlement, to support the recovery from the impact of COVID-19. Cancer patients will continue to be prioritised with the NHS and will benefit from the approximately £1 billion to begin tackling the elective backlog and approximately £1.5 billion to help ease existing pressures caused by COVID-19. This package will be supported by £325 million capital funding for diagnostics, to replace over two thirds of imaging equipment over 10 years old.