Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the £200 million announced for early diagnosis in cancer by NHS England on 6 December 2016 will include funding for awareness initiatives.

The £200 million will be available over the next two years to support earlier diagnosis and people living with and beyond cancer. Cancer alliances will bid for funding for specific local initiatives, which could include awareness campaigns, although funding has not been specifically set aside for this purpose.

Public Health England’s (PHE) Be Clear on Cancer campaigns are designed to raise the public’s awareness of specific cancer symptoms, encourage people with those symptoms to go to the doctor and diagnose cancer at an earlier stage. An early general practitioner visit can make a cancer more treatable, and thereby improve cancer survival rates. These campaigns are funded by PHE and delivered in partnership with the Department and NHS England.

The independent Cancer Taskforce strategy report Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes: A Strategy for England 2015 to 2020 (July 2015) recommended that PHE should continue to invest in Be Clear on Cancer campaigns. PHE will continue to work with the Department, NHS England and other stakeholders to keep campaigns under review, and to see what might be done to increase awareness of other cancers ensuring that health care professionals are also targeted with campaign information to encourage earlier diagnoses and referrals.

The decision on which cancers should be the focus of Be Clear on Cancer campaigns is informed by a steering group, whose members include primary and secondary care clinicians, and key voluntary sector organisations.