Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she has taken to work with (a) the NHS and (b) other stakeholders to increase earlier cancer diagnoses.

Improving early diagnosis of cancer remains a priority for NHS England and the Government. NHS England is working towards the NHS Long Term Plan’s ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage one and two by 2028. The latest published data shows this was 54% between January to December 2021. Achieving this ambition will mean that, from 2028, 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis.  Ministers and officials from the Department regularly meet with NHS England and other stakeholders, to discuss progress towards the ambition.

NHS England’s comprehensive Early Diagnosis strategy is based on six core strands of activity, from raising awareness of cancer symptoms and encouraging people to come forward, to implementing targeted interventions for particular cancer types that we know have previously experienced later stages of diagnosis.