Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. Today I would like to announce the publication of the cancer services improvement plan by NHS Wales. The plan sets out how the NHS, collectively, will respond to the quality statement for cancer and our wider commitments to improving diagnostic and end-of-life care for people affected by cancer. It follows on from several important debates we have held over the past year on the matter of improving cancer outcomes and my commitment to bring forward such a plan.

We set out in the national clinical framework that we would describe what good clinical services should look like in quality statements, and that we would expect the NHS to plan against those expectations. Health boards and trusts are doing this through the NHS planning framework, which focuses on cancer services, amongst other ministerial priorities, and they are currently developing these in their integrated medium-term plans, setting out their response. So, I've set out six priority areas—cancer is one of those priority areas. The cancer services improvement plan published today supports that process. It describes how the NHS intends to deliver our policy intentions.

One of the key areas in the quality statement is delivering care in line with the cancer waiting time. This means that 75 per cent of patients requiring cancer treatment should start definitive treatment within 62 days of the point at which cancer is first suspected. This expectation has been really challenging to deliver and there are three main reasons for this. The first is the introduction of the new suspected cancer pathway, which overhauled how we counted people on the cancer pathway—unique in the UK—capturing more people earlier on in their pathway without pausing the waiting time clock. The second is the historic growth in demand for cancer investigation and treatment, caused by our population factors and lowering of the risk threshold for referral, to ensure that we don't miss any potential cancers. And, thirdly, delivery has been restricted by our service capacity to refer, investigate, treat and care for people affected by cancer. In short, demand is growing, our capacity struggles to keep pace, and we’re now much better at accurately counting everybody on a cancer pathway. That translates into the cancer performance we see reported, which has been far below all our expectations since the new suspected cancer pathway was introduced. And it is fair to say that the pandemic has had its impact too. COVID has distorted access and created huge pressures in the wider system that have had implications for cancer investigations and access to theatres and critical care.

I held a summit of cancer service leaders in October to reinforce our planning expectations that we recover the volume on the cancer waiting list, we reduce the number of people waiting over 62 days, and build towards that 62-day target. Things are very, very difficult, with services working flat out to meet the needs of patients. But, I am pleased to report NHS management data shows a fall in the number of people waiting more than 62 days for their treatment to start between October and early December, and shows a fall in the overall number of people waiting on the cancer pathway and a slight improvement in cancer performance in the latest figures published for November. This shows the NHS is giving cancer pathways the focus they deserve, although the disruption of Christmas, industrial action and respiratory illnesses have caused us further challenges in recent weeks.