Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Cancer Transformation Funding that was made available to Cancer Alliances following an announcement by NHS England in December 2016 in supporting the roll-out of the Recovery Package, stratified pathways and early diagnosis measures across England.

In December 2016, Cancer Alliances were invited to submit bids against a £200 million transformation fund (for 2017/18 and 2018/19) to support delivery of early diagnosis and implementation of the Recovery Package and stratified follow-up pathways. Based on an assessment of the bids, NHS England has decided to take a phased approach to releasing the funding over the course of 2017/18.

Proposals to access the funding underwent an assessment using the Best Possible Value framework, a standardised framework which aims to place consideration of value to population, to patient and to taxpayer at the heart of decision-making, enabling evaluation and comparison of different options using an evidence based methodology. Based on the assessment, a panel chaired by the Executive Medical Director of NHS Improvement, along with NHS England regional representation, clinicians and patient charity representation, recommended a phased approach to releasing the funding over the course of 2017/18. The effectiveness of the funding will be assessed against the ambitions set by the independent Cancer Taskforce in their strategy for cancer services, published in July 2015.