Written questions by Davies.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of developing a specific Action Plan for (a) cancers of the (i) brain, (ii) liver, (iii) lung, (iv) stomach, (v) oesophagus and (vi) pancreas and (b) other less survivable cancers.

Lord Darzi’s report has set out the scale of the challenges we face in fixing the National Health Service, and the need to improve cancer waiting time performance and cancer survival. The report will inform the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS, including further detail on how we will improve outcomes for cancer, including less survivable cancers.The Government’s Health Mission aims to reduce lives lost to the biggest killers, including cancer, and we recognise the importance of tackling less survivable cancers as part of that Mission.

What steps his Department is taking to (a) raise awareness of and (b) tackle stigma associated with (i) loneliness and (ii) mental health challenges among men.

Raising awareness of loneliness across society and reducing the associated stigma for all groups at risk of loneliness, including men, is a core part of the Government’s current approach to tackling loneliness. This includes providing loneliness advice as part of the Better Health: Every Mind Matters campaign.The Department for Culture, Media and Support is also supporting organisations which can play a role in reducing loneliness stigma amongst men through the tackling loneliness hub, an online platform that connects professionals from across sectors working to reduce loneliness.Men with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they need, which is why we will ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health so that men can be confident of accessing high quality mental health support when they need it. We will modernise the Mental Health Act and we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce delays, provide faster treatment and help ease pressure on busy mental health services.We have committed to tackling suicide as one of the biggest killers of men and, as part of this, the new mental health workers will be specially trained to support people at risk of suicide.We will also continue to work with the wide range of voluntary community and social enterprise organisations such as Men’s Sheds, ANDYSMANCLUB and the Campaign Against Living Miserably which play such an important role in supporting men at risk of mental ill health and suicide.

If he will take steps to (a) collect and (b) analyse data on cancer in the over 70s as part of the National Cancer audit.

The NHS England Cancer Programme commissions clinical cancer audits, which provide timely evidence for cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, increase the consistency of access to treatments, and help stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes for patients. Rather than a single audit, NHS England commissions ten audits, by tumour type, and are unaware of any intention to commission an audit into those over 70 years old.For all patients in England, the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service provides near-real time, comprehensive, quality-assured data covering the entire cancer pathway. The service collects data about all 500,000 patients diagnosed with cancer in England each year, and produces a variety of reports and publications using cancer registration data.

Whether he is taking steps to reinstate the National Cancer Equality Initiative to examine inequalities in cancer care.

There are currently no plans to reinstate the National Cancer Equality Initiative. Making improvements across different cancer types is critical to reducing inequalities in cancer survival. Early cancer diagnosis is also a specific priority within the National Health Service’s wider Core20Plus5 approach to reducing healthcare inequalities.We recognise there are particular challenges for a number of different populations, particularly for people living in the most deprived areas of the country. As part of our wider strategy on early diagnosis, we are directly targeting our activity at areas we know will make a difference. This includes awareness raising campaigns such as the NHS Help Us, Help You campaign, to increase awareness of cancer symptoms and encourage people to get checked.

What plans he has to deliver a national health inequalities strategy.

The Government is committed to building a fairer Britain by tackling the structural inequalities that contribute to poor health, particularly for disadvantaged groups. We are dedicated to ensuring that people live well for longer, spending less time in ill health, regardless of where they are born or their financial circumstances.Our health mission in England will focus on addressing the social determinants of health, with the goal of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions.We will work across the Government to address the root causes of health inequalities, including barriers to access to health and care services. We will prioritise prevention, shift more care into the community, and intervene earlier in life to raise the healthiest generation of children in our history.