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 support GPs in diagnosing ovarian cancer.

The Government is committed to supporting the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including ovarian cancer, earlier and faster.

We are improving public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlining referral routes, and increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres. We are also investing an additional £889 million in general practice (GP) to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26.

In October 2024, we invested £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which has enabled the recruitment of over 1,500 recently qualified GPs across England, which will increase the number of appointments delivered and care for thousands of patients.

We are committed to ensuring that GPs have the right training and systems to identify cancer. The Department will continue to look at opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to transform diagnostic performance and ultimately bring down waiting times. The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including for rare and less common cancers. It will aim to speed up diagnosis and treatment and will ensure that all patients have access to the latest treatments and technology.