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 reduce the number of people diagnosed with cancer in an emergency care setting in (a) Yorkshire and (b) England.

It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes. This will help cancer patients across England, including in Yorkshire.

The Government has now exceeded its pledge to deliver two million extra operations, scans and appointments, having delivered four-and-a-half million additional appointments as a first step to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029.

To support earlier diagnosis, the NHS is improving referral and diagnostic pathways, including the use of non-specific symptom pathways for patients whose symptoms, such as unexplained weight loss, fatigue, or abdominal discomfort, do not clearly align with a single cancer type. NHS England has also expanded general practice direct access to diagnostic tests, enabling faster investigation of concerning symptoms.

The forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and aftercare. The goal of the Department of Health and Social Care is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next 10 years.