Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what changes his Department plans to make to the (a) reporting of and (b) data collected by NHS England on cancer waiting times after 1 October 2023.

The Department has taken steps to work with NHS England to modernise and simplify National Health Service cancer waiting time targets. The new standards are more in line with the requirements of modern cancer care, with a greater focus on outcomes and incentivising the completion of the pathway, in the best interests of patients.

From 1 October 2023, the NHS will move from the 10 different standards currently in place to three:

- Faster Diagnosis Standard: a diagnosis or ruling out of cancer within 28 days of referral (set at 75%, rising to 80% by 2026);

- 31-day treatment standard: commence treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat for all cancer patients (set at 96%); and

- 62-day treatment standard: commence treatment within 62 days of being referred or consultant upgrade (set at 85%).

There will be minimal changes to reporting of data by trusts. In addition, Cancer Waiting Time statistics will continue to be published monthly by NHS England, who will take this opportunity to improve the granularity of the statistics by cancer type.

NHS England will continue to collect and publish some data on the other process-based standards, such as first and subsequent radiotherapy or chemotherapy treatments. This data will remain important in terms of being able to analyse and understand reasons for any changes in overall performance.