Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure early diagnosis of cancer.

Earlier diagnosis of cancer, at stages 1 or 2, is key to delivering improved cancer outcomes and boosting chances of survival. The earlier that cancer is diagnosed, the more options there are for effective treatment.

The Government is committed to improving rates of early diagnosis. We are increasing public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms through the NHS Help Us, Help You campaigns, to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point. Additionally, we are streamlining referral routes by introducing the non-specific symptom pathway, for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms which do not clearly align to a tumour type. We are also increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres.

Furthermore, the latest rapid registration data shows our 12-month early diagnosis rate reached 58.7% as of July 2024; this is 2.7% higher than pre-pandemic levels. This means approximately 7,000 more people are being diagnosed at stage 1 and 2. The roll out of the lung screening programme has driven two thirds of this improvement and latest data shows early diagnosis for lung cancer is eight percentage points higher than pre-pandemic. We will build on recent successes, including further roll out of the lung screening programme, to diagnose cancer earlier and boost survival rates.

Additionally, the recently announced National Cancer Plan, which will complement the 10-Year Health Plan and support delivery of the Government’s Health Mission, will set out further actions to improve early diagnosis.