Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the average waiting time between cancer diagnosis and treatment in each of the last 10 years.

The Department does not hold data on the average waiting time between cancer diagnosis and treatment. NHS England collects data on cancer waiting times and these data are published on their website. The data comprise of organisational performance against operational standards that support waiting time commitments laid out in the NHS Constitution. These include the standard that 96% of patients should begin first definitive treatment for all cancers within a maximum of 31 days from diagnosis.

A national time series can be found at the link below:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Cancer-Waiting-Times-National-Time-Series-Oct-2009-Mar-2016-Provider-based.xlsx