Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that people requiring urgent cancer treatment are fast-tracked to avoid lengthy waiting times.

There are eight cancer waiting time targets, which are set out below.

- at least 93% of patients to be seen by a specialist within two weeks of an urgent general practitioner referral for suspected cancer;

- at least 96% of patients to begin first definitive treatment within 31 days of diagnosis for all cancers;

- at least 85% of patients to begin first treatment within 62 days of urgent referral for suspected cancer for all cancers;

- at least 93% of people urgently referred for breast symptoms (where cancer was not initially suspected) to be seen within two weeks of referral;

- at least 98% of patients to be treated within 31 days where the subsequent treatment was an anti-cancer drug regime;

- at least 94% of patients to be treated within 31 days where the subsequent treatment was surgery;

- at least 94% of patients to be treated within 31 days where the subsequent treatment was radiotherapy; and

- at least 90% of patients to begin first treatment for cancer within 62 days of referral from a National Health Service cancer screening service, for all cancers.

During this Parliament, urgent cancer referrals are up by 51% as we treat more patients than ever, and cancer survival rates that were amongst the worst in Western Europe have risen to record levels.