Cancer (Hansard, 16 January 2002)

§ Nick Harvey
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money has been(a) allocated and (b) spent on cancer prevention projects in (i) each of the financial years since 1990 and (ii) future years for which budgets have been set, broken down by regional health authority. [23382]

§ Yvette Cooper
The information is not held centrally in the form requested and could be gathered only at disproportionate cost.

§ Mr. Havard
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate how many hospital bed days could be saved annually if cancer(a) in-patients and (b) out-patients, who are transfused with blood, were given alternative treatments that would not require hospitalisation. [25029]

§ Yvette Cooper
It is not possible to calculate the number of bed days or day-cases saved through giving cancer patients alternatives to blood transfusions as many would still be required to attend hospital for other treatments linked to their illness. Further analysis of potential cost impact of alternative treatments will be produced shortly.

§ David Taylor
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the NHS Cancer Plan in tackling smoking-related cancers; and if further measures are planned to address this cause of cancers. [27133]

§ Yvette Cooper
[holding answer 14 January 2002]: Smoking is the cause of a third of all cancers. The NHS Cancer Plan set a new target to bring down smoking rates among manual groups from 32 per cent. in 1998 to 26 per cent. by 2010, so that we can narrow the gap between manual and non-manual groups.
It is too early to make an assessment of the effectiveness of the measures in the plan which focus on smoking. However the NHS smoking cessation services have already delivered some 100,000 quitters at the four weeks stage.
As part of a response to the NHS Cancer Plan, we have already established a number of pilot projects focusing action on particularly hard-to-reach groups. The scope of the pilots will be extended in due course. We have also asked health authorities to focus their smoking cessation services on manual groups in line with the NHS Cancer Plan target. Each pilot project will be evaluated and in the light of those evaluations, and the practical lessons learned, we will be able to properly assess the impact of those measures and what further measures will be needed.