Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding he plans to provide for the national lung cancer screening programme in each the next three years; and on what evidential basis his Department has determined that level of funding.

Funding for national lung screening is set by NHS England. The Department has set stretching targets for the National Health Service to improve cancer performance next year, and the Spending Review prioritised investment into the health service, with a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department over this year and next. Departmental settlements for future years will be set out in due course, following the conclusion of phase two of the Spending Review in late spring 2025.

We will get the NHS diagnosing cancer earlier, including lung cancer, and treating it faster, so more patients survive. As a first step we have delivered an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week during our first year in Government to ensure earlier diagnoses and faster treatment for those who need it most. We will address diagnostic waiting times, providing the number of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and other tests that are needed to reduce cancer waits. The NHS will also maximise the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.