Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to provide support and assistance for patients with bowel cancer.

The National Cancer Survivorship Initiative (NCSI) has set out to understand the numbers, needs, and experiences of people living with and beyond cancer, including bowel cancer, and the most effective service solutions to meet the growing numbers of survivors. The NCSI has recommended four priority areas: recovery packages; consequences of treatment and Patient Report Outcome Measures; stratified pathways of care; and physical activity. To support this work NHS England, in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, has established the Living with and Beyond Cancer Programme, a two-year programme of work to embed the four priority areas from NCSI into mainstream commissioning.

Living with and beyond cancer has also been identified as a key theme by the independent Cancer Taskforce, which is developing a new cancer strategy to be published in summer 2015.