The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 6 February 2007:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many new cases of colorectal cancer there were in (a) 2005 and (b) 2006 in (i) men and (ii) women in England and Wales. I am replying in her absence. (119211)
The latest available figures for newly diagnosed cases of cancer (incidence) are for the years 2005 (Wales), 2004 (England). In 2004 there were 16,920 new cases of colorectal cancer among males in England and Wales and 13,910 among females.
2005 cancer incidence figures for Wales are available at:
http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sites3/docmetadata.cfm?orgid=242&id=68938&pid=21936
There are a number of reasons why the figures appear to be two years “out of date”. Cancer registration is not statutory. Cancer registration is a complex process, involving the capture of information from a large number of sources. Registries have to register all cases, while not unwittingly creating duplicate records for the same person and cancer. This inevitably takes some time—particularly when, as is often the case, information from the patient's notes is not made available to the registries until the patient's main course of treatment has ended.