Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the two-week wait cancer referral target on referral waiting times for inflammatory skin conditions.

The Department has no current plans to make an assessment. The two-week cancer referral target for cancer reflects the importance of early diagnosis and treatment for that particular disease. Patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks for all other non-urgent, consultant-led treatments, including for inflammatory skin conditions.

NHS England published ‘The two-week wait skin cancer pathway: innovative approaches to support early diagnosis of skin cancer as part of the NHS COVID-19 recovery plan’ in April 2022, which emphasises that providers should not prioritise skin cancer targets to the detriment of the timely care of people with rashes and long-term skin conditions.