Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on the rollout of the direct access scheme for GPs to order diagnostic tests for patients with symptoms of cancer.

In November 2022, NHS England announced that general practitioners (GPs) would have direct access to a range of key diagnostic tests. NHS England is rolling out this direct access scheme across all GP practices in England for patients with concerning symptoms, but who fall outside the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline threshold for an urgent suspected cancer referral.

Phase 1 of the direct access scheme will deal with urgent cancer referral pathways, and Phase 2, which will be built up in 2023/24, will include a wider range of tests, which will involve dialogues with GPs, integrated care boards and key stakeholders.

Alongside this, the introduction of Community Diagnostic Centres (CDC) provides additional diagnostic capacity, with 114 CDCs currently in operation, supporting primary care teams to boost the number of GP Direct Access tests available

NHS England continues to actively support those trusts requiring the greatest help to cut cancer waiting lists, and the Department is working with NHS England to make further improvements.