I would like to thank Plaid Cymru for tabling this debate today. The Welsh Government’s refreshed cancer delivery plan outlines the scale of the problem we face. Cancer care has vastly improved over the years and, as a result, more and more people are surviving cancer. However, we are failing badly when it comes to early diagnosis and have some of the worst five-year survival rates in the developed world. Eventually one in two of us will develop cancer at some point in our lives and, as Dr Crosby writes in the introduction to the cancer delivery plan,

‘Diagnosing cancer early allows for a combination of less aggressive and less expensive treatment, improved patient experience and quality of life, and cruciallybetter survival.’

We have to do better. We must learn from experiences elsewhere, and I’m pleased that the Welsh Government accepts that we are not performing well when it comes to early diagnosis and that they are prepared to look at how things are done across the world. The cancer implementation group’s visit to Denmark has led to an overhaul of GP cancer referrals and the piloting of diagnostic centres. Plaid’s motion refers to the work undertaken to develop the English cancer delivery plan, and UKIP would happily support Wales adopting the cancer targets set out in the report by the independent cancer taskforce.

The NHS in England have made massive improvements in their five-year survival rates and we would do well to learn from these achievements.