Alison McGovern

I feel sure that the Minister responsible for this area of policy will arrange such meetings. I will make available to him a copy of this debate so he can read for himself how important it is. I would say in a supportive way to the hon. Gentleman that we now have a cancer strategy that will improve outcomes over the next 10 years. I hope colleagues will also recognise that we have been unflinchingly honest about the scale of the challenge we face. We will always do so. We cannot sugarcoat the current situation, even while we all want to offer our constituents some hope. We have a 10-year national cancer plan to make England a world leader in cancer outcomes. It is very important that it succeeds. It is a plan that sets out more than 100 actions to improve cancer survival, increase earlier diagnosis, recover performance against waiting time standards, and improve the quality of life for people living with and beyond cancer. We published the plan in February this year and, starting on its first anniversary, we will publish an annual report that will measure our progress against each of these targets every year. It will be freely available online and accessible to all. At the end of three years, we will also publish a complete and honest account of what we have got right and where we need to go further. When it comes to improving the plan, no options are off the table. I want to express my sincere thanks to our friend, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton). I am delighted that she has agreed to rejoin us as an adviser on the national cancer plan’s implementation. She knows how important it is that we get this right and she has already done some pretty inspirational work on the first draft of the plan. But I know she would be the first say that wherever the plan is falling short we should and we will improve it. It is not a question of creating new legislation or statutory requirements when we have a cancer plan; our priority should be to crack on with the job. While we get on with that job, I welcome scrutiny from the hon. Member for Wokingham and from all other Members in this place as they rightly hold the Government to account. Accountability is already being built into the way we deliver the plan. For example, in September we followed through on a commitment to establish a new National Cancer Board, bringing together leaders from across the cancer community, to set strategic direction, give independent challenge and make sure we are keeping up momentum towards our goals. A few weeks ago, the hon. Member for Wokingham asked the Prime Minister to look at this proposal, and his suggestion was shared with the National Cancer Board. I can update the House that the board has now provided its views to Ministers, and those views have helped shape the Government’s position today. As I have said, the board deliberately brings together people with different roles and different perspectives. We would not expect every member to agree on this issue. Some members have noted support for the Bill and its ambitions to put cancer strategy and reporting on a statutory footing, while others have concerns and worry that creating a parallel statutory framework could duplicate the national cancer plan, cause confusion for patients and the public and create additional reporting requirements without necessarily improving delivery. Board members, however, share a clear expectation that reporting on the national cancer plan must provide a transparent account of progress, including where delivery is off track and, importantly, what action is being taken to get it back on track.