Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that NHS Trusts meet targets for cancer treatment waiting times.

The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how we aim to return the number of people waiting more than 62 days to start treatment following an urgent referral for suspected cancer to pre-pandemic levels by March 2023. We have committed a further £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund to increase capacity in elective services, including for cancer treatment.