4. Will the First Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's cancer services action plan? OQ58285

Llywydd, work to produce the action plan is being carried out by the Wales cancer network. That work will continue through the summer. The Minister expects to receive a draft of the plan in September.

Thank you very much for that response. I have just sponsored an event celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Cancer Research UK, and, while celebrating the work that has been done through research to improve survival rates, there was a warning that we're in danger of seeing the progress coming to an end now. The impact of the pandemic has meant that people are waiting 16 times longer than they were pre COVID for some diagnostic tests, and the lack of a national cancer action plan that I and others have been calling for for so long means that we're in a vulnerable position. The Government, as we've heard, say that there is a new action plan on the way. I heard a suggestion earlier that it could have been published this summer or in September. We've had a confirmation that a draft will be given to the Minister by September. Does the First Minister agree with me and Cancer Research UK that we need to take urgent action now?

'We need a sense of urgency'.

That's what the chief executive of Cancer Research UK said today, because I'm afraid we haven't seen that sense of urgency from the Welsh Government recently.

Wel, Llywydd, it's important to give the Wales cancer network, who are working on this plan, the time that they have requested, and we're not talking about more than a matter of weeks before we reach the beginning of September, so I think we are trying to act with urgency, and that's important. I agree that the impact of the pandemic on cancer services has been very great, but people are working hard. As I've explained to the Senedd previously, England has a plan, Scotland has a strategy, we have a statement. We're all trying to achieve the same thing. The name on the proposals is different, but the intention is the same, and we are working hard with the people who lead services on the ground to do everything that we can to move this agenda forward.

The concern that I have, First Minister, as indeed do cancer charities themselves, is about the pace at which the new diagnostic hubs or clinics are being rolled out. Can you tell me what the role of the diagnostics board will be in ensuring health boards develop these service models and hubs at a faster pace?

Well, Llywydd, all health boards—apart from Cardiff, which will begin later this year—now have rapid diagnostic centres. So, I'm not quite sure what problem the Member sees with pace, when they're already happening in six out of seven health boards in Wales. There are three of them operating in north Wales, where Rhun ap Iorwerth will have a direct interest; one in each of the three district general hospitals now has a rapid diagnostic centre. And Llywydd, it's important to remember what those rapid diagnostic centres were for: people who present with symptoms to their GP do not always have classically and the directly symptoms that link to a possibility of cancer. They present with what are called by the profession 'vague symptoms' and up until now, there hasn't always been a direct route for a GP to make sure that someone who they think may be in that position, but where the symptoms aren't definitive, to make sure that that person can get the assessment that they need. That is what the new centres are for, and they are a significant addition to the landscape that we have here in Wales.

Llywydd, I've said already that the impact of COVID on cancer services in Wales has been real, but in the last year—and health works on financial years in the way that it counts these things—referrals were 17 per cent higher than the year before the pandemic began, and 22 per cent more people received treatment for cancer than in the year before the pandemic hit. So, despite the real pressures that the system is under, it has responded, I think, with real determination and with considerable success.