To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps he plans to take to facilitate access to information on treatment choices for those with cancer; (242860)

We highlighted in the “Cancer Reform Strategy: Maintaining momentum, building for the future—first annual report” published on 1 December 2008, that major progress has been made over the past year on providing high quality information to cancer patients at each step in the care pathway. A copy of the strategy has been placed in the Library.

The National Cancer Action Team (NCAT), with Cancer Networks across England and over 13 cancer charities, has been working to develop national cancer patient information pathways to support the delivery of information prescriptions to cancer patients.

There are plans in early 2009 to look at a primary care module of the cancer patient information delivery tool for general practitioners and other community staff, to help them to ensure that patients living with cancer have access to high quality co-ordinated information.