Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the level of funding needed to ensure the cancer workforce can deliver the commitments in the NHS Long Term Plan; and whether that information will be included in the Workforce Implementation Plan.

Following publication of the first ever Cancer Workforce Plan in December 2017, Health Education England (HEE) had intended to publish a second phase, longer-term strategy that looked at the cancer workforce needs beyond 2021. The announcement of the development of the NHS Long Term Plan superseded this work and HEE will now work with NHS England and NHS Improvement to understand the longer-term workforce implications for further development of cancer services. This will include exploring sustainable growth beyond 2021 in key professions through continued investment in training places, with a greater focus on attracting and retaining students and improving the numbers of qualified professionals who go on to work in the National Health Service.