To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the £75 million earmarked for reducing cancer waiting times and providing a named midwife for all pregnant women over the period of the Comprehensive Spending Review, as set out in the Department of Health press release dated 9 October 2007, will be spent on each of these two priorities; how much is proposed to be spent over each year of the Comprehensive Spending Review; and if he will make a statement. (162417)

The £75 million announced in the press release relates only to the cost of reducing cancer waiting times over the spending review period. The figure is the Department's estimate of the cost to the national health service (NHS) of delivering improvements. The great majority of NHS funding is allocated to primary care trusts, who will decide spending in each area of health care in the light of both national and local priorities. The exact spend on reducing cancer waiting times in each year of the spending review period will therefore be determined locally by the NHS, and is not prescribed by the Department.