NHS England recognises the importance of delivering public health services, including screening, which people find easy to access. This is why the NHS Long Term Plan and detailed improvement actions are about ensuring services are easy and convenient for people to use in order to deliver the Long Term Plan ambition on cancer to see 55,000 more people surviving cancer for five years in England each year from 2028.

The actions plans include real-world case studies which have demonstrated improvements in local areas. These case studies sit alongside widely published evidence which has been proven to deliver improvements in uptake. We expect these actions to have a positive impact on the uptake of screening.

Sir Mike Richards’ Review of Screening report is due to be published shortly which will identify additional opportunities to improve the uptake of breast, bowel, and cervical screening. In addition, NHSX is looking at possible improvements to screening IT systems, which should support the delivery of cancer screening programmes.

No assessment has been made of the number of people who have cancer living either within a mile of an electricity pylon or mobile telecommunications mast.

The directly age-standardised cancer mortality rates per 100,000 population in England under 75 years of age for each of the three most recently published years are shown in the following table:

NHS England is mobilising the Genomic Medicine Service which brings together existing clinical genetics services and the new genomic laboratory infrastructure. By consolidating genomic testing services into seven Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs), the National Health Service is able to operate more efficiently using cutting-edge high throughput technology and supporting make equitable access. The new service will enable additional genomic information to inform treatment and enable turnaround times to be kept to a minimum.

The turnaround times which are set out in the GLH service specification fall within the existing 62 day standard for receiving first treatment for cancer.

The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products, including those to treat cancer in children, once we have left the EU.

The Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, is implementing a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages. Further details can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/medicines-and-medical-products-supply-government-updates-no-deal-brexit-plans

Our Embassy in Tel Aviv regularly raises the matter of medical permits with the Israeli authorities. Israeli restrictions severely restrict the movement of medical professionals, patients and families from Gaza, hampering the provision of quality health services, as well as impacting Palestinians in the West Bank. The situation in Gaza is particularly acute, and is compounded by frequent closure by Egypt of the Rafah crossing, preventing urgent medical cases from seeking treatment in Egypt. A lasting resolution to the situation is needed that will ensure that all those who are in need of medical attention and their families have unimpeded access to healthcare provisions.

The Department takes seriously the need to support vulnerable claimants. The initial verification can include a home visit to support a claimant with making their claim and completing any other administrative tasks required to ensure that they receive the correct payment.

We want the application process for Universal Credit to be as quick and easy as possible to ensure that claimants receive their money at the earliest opportunity.

This is why Citizen’s Advice and Citizen’s Advice Scotland have been delivering the ‘Help to Claim’ service, supporting claimants with making a new claim to Universal Credit. The Citizens Advice Help to Claim service offers tailored, practical support to help people make a Universal Credit claim up to receiving their first full correct payment on time, and is available online, on the phone and face-to-face through local Citizen’s Advice services.

Staff delivering Universal Credit undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality service to all claimants, including those who have cancer and other health conditions.

As we continue to deliver Universal Credit, with its expanded claimant base, we are continuing to review and further develop the customer journey for claimants with complex needs, including how we support claimants with health conditions to engage in the process.

The Department takes seriously the need to support vulnerable claimants. The initial verification can include a home visit to support a claimant with making their claim and completing any other administrative tasks required to ensure that they receive the correct payment.

We want the application process for Universal Credit to be as quick and easy as possible to ensure that claimants receive their money at the earliest opportunity.

This is why Citizen’s Advice and Citizen’s Advice Scotland have been delivering the ‘Help to Claim’ service, supporting claimants with making a new claim to Universal Credit. The Citizens Advice Help to Claim service offers tailored, practical support to help people make a Universal Credit claim up to receiving their first full correct payment on time, and is available online, on the phone and face-to-face through local Citizen’s Advice services.

Staff delivering Universal Credit undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality service to all claimants, including those who have cancer and other health conditions.

As we continue to deliver Universal Credit, with its expanded claimant base, we are continuing to review and further develop the customer journey for claimants with complex needs, including how we support claimants with health conditions to engage in the process.

Information on the average time taken to receive cancer test results is not collected centrally.

NHS England publishes monthly performance data against the waiting times standards for diagnostic tests (not exclusive to cancer) and waiting times data of people referred by their general practitioner (GP) with suspected cancer and those subsequently diagnosed and treated for cancer.

Following publication of the interim People Plan on 3 June 2019, work is now underway to develop a full five-year NHS People Plan, which will support delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan. The full People Plan will build on the ambitions in the interim Plan, focusing on education and training, and new routes into the National Health Service, as well as workforce planning and redesign, and workforce productivity (releasing time for care).

Since publication of the Interim Plan, Health Education England and NHS Improvement and NHS England have been working together to ensure delivery of the immediate actions and have been working with stakeholders including the People Plan advisory group and trade unions, think tanks, academia, and professional bodies to develop the full People Plan. Work is also underway with national clinical programmes, including cancer and diagnostics, to understand their workforce priorities for delivering the Long Term Plan commitments, including addressing key workforce shortages.

Also, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England asked Sir Mike Richards to lead a review to improve the delivery of the screening programmes, increase uptake, learn the lessons from the recent issues around breast and cervical screening, and modernise and expand diagnostic capacity. Workforce requirements to support delivery of our national screening programmes are included in scope of Professor Sir Mike Richards review and we expect publication of the report shortly. The review, will make recommendations to the Secretary of State and Board of NHS England about the future commissioning and delivery of screening programmes in England.

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research spend in a particular area, such as cancer, is driven by factors including scientific potential and the number and scale of successful funding applications.

The NIHR’s expenditure on cancer research constitutes the largest investment in a disease area, and expenditure since 2009 is set out in the attached table.

The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Our plans should ensure the supply of medicines and medical products when we leave the EU on 31 October.

The Department, in consultation with the devolved administrations, has been working with trade bodies, product suppliers, and the health and care system in England to make detailed plans that should ensure continuation of the supply of medical products to the whole of the UK and its Crown Dependencies.

On 26 June, we wrote to suppliers of medicines to the UK from or via the EU or European Economic Area setting out our continuing multi-layered approach to support continuity of supply of medicines and medical products from 31 October.

Further details can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/medicines-and-medical-products-supply-government-updates-no-deal-brexit-plans

As with our plans leading up to 29 March, for those medicines that cannot be stockpiled because, for example, they have short shelf-lives, such as medical radioisotopes for use in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, we have asked suppliers to make alternative arrangements, using air freight, which some suppliers are already doing now. We have offered support to companies to arrange this.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.