The following reports provide information and monthly data on the waiting times of people referred with suspected cancer or breast symptoms and subsequently told the outcome of their diagnosis, and treated for cancer by the NHS in England.

Cancer Waiting Times standards from October 2023 data

From the 14th December 2023, cancer waiting times statistics have been updated to reflect the new operating framework for October 2023 data onwards. For data prior to this, please see our historic page here.

For high-level summaries on the three main cancer waiting times standards, please see our time series files below. Monthly data are released as provisional data and subsequently finalised in line with the NHS England revisions policy.

Time series with revisions

CWT CRS – National Time Series Oct 2009 – Mar 2025 with Revisions (XLSX, 56KB)
CWT CRS – Provider Time Series Apr 2021 – Mar 2025 with Revisions (XLSX, 583KB)
CWT CRS – Commissioner Time Series Jul 2022 – Mar 2025 with Revisions (XLSX, 171KB)

Time Series provisional

CWT CRS – National Time Series Oct 2009 – Mar 2025 Provisional (XLSX, 51KB)
CWT CRS – Provider Time Series Apr 2021 – Mar 2025 Provisional (XLSX, 475KB)
CWT CRS – Commissioner Time Series Jul 2022 – Mar 2025 Provisional (XLSX, 157KB)

The more detailed data for a single month, including breakdowns of the three main cancer waiting times standards, is available here: Monthly data and summaries

Data Extracts

The following files provide data by month from April 2022 to the most recent available data. These files provide levels of activity by standard, by provider or ICB sub location, and for the provider based data by cancer type.

Provider based

The provider extract adopts a consistent breakdown for the provider workbooks. For the 31 day combined standard, stage is available in combination with modality or cancer type, whilst modality by cancer type is not available. For the 62 day combined standard, route is available by modality or cancer type, whilst modality by cancer type is not available.

‘Cancer Type’ (for the 31 and 62 day combined standards) is based on a higher granularity from April 2022 to September 2023, than for October 2023 data onwards. Data for April 2023-September 2023 are given in a separate data file than data for October 2023 onwards. A technical explanation of the tumour classification adopted is available here: Technical note on tumour classifications in 31 and 62 day combined standards

CWT CRS Oct 2024 to Mar 2025 Data Extract (Provider) (XLSX, 2.2MB)
CWT CRS Apr 2024 to Sep 2024 Data Extract (Provider) Final (XLSX, 2.19MB)
CWT CRS Oct 2023 to Mar 2024 Data Extract (Provider) Final (XLSX, 2.7MB)
CWT CRS Apr 2023 to Sep 2023 Data Extract (Provider) Final (XLSX, 2.2MB)
CWT CRS 2022-23 Data Extract (Provider) Final (XLSX, 4.9MB)

Commissioner based

The ICB Sub location extract gives data by standard and a limited set of sub categories, this is by stage and modality for the 31 day combined standard, and by route for the 62 day combined standard.

CWT CRS Oct-24 to Mar-25 Data Extract (ICB Sub Location) (XLSX, 227KB)
CWT CRS Apr-24 to Sep-24 Data Extract (ICB Sub Location) Final (XLSX, 229KB)
CWT CRS Apr-23 to Mar-24 Data Extract (ICB Sub Location) Final (XLSX, 434KB)
CWT CRS Jul-22 to Mar-23 Data Extract (ICB Sub Location) Final (XLSX, 400KB)

Cancer Waiting Times standards to September 2023 data

Published data on the cancer waiting times standards in place to September 2023 are available here: Cancer Waiting Times standards to September 2023

Supporting Information

Integrated Care Boards (ICB)

From July 2022 cancer waiting times commissioner data is published by Integrated Care Boards in the main publication outputs. Information by Sub ICB Location is available as a long thin data table in the Data extracts (Monthly commissioner based only) section below.

The difference between the commissioner and provider data

The national levels of activity and performance of commissioner-based statistics on waiting times for suspected and diagnosed cancer patients may differ from the equivalent provider-based national statistics on cancer waiting times.

This is because the commissioner-based statistics only include those patients who can be traced back to an English commissioner using their NHS Number. As a result, the national calculated performance levels may differ slightly between the two datasets.

As the commissioner (Clinical Commissioning Groups and from July 2022 Integrated Care Boards) based statistics are derived from those data submitted by the providers of NHS cancer services, the provider-based National Statistics on waiting times for suspected and diagnosed cancer patients (published at the same time as these statistics) remain the most complete assessment of the performance of the English NHS.

Patient allocation

To March 2019 the allocation was equally divided between first seen and treatment providers.

From April 2019 the allocation of patients on 62 day pathways which involve multiple providers was changed and the rules set out in the national cancer waiting times monitoring dataset guidance, the latest version of which can be found here: Cancer Waiting Times Data Collection (CWT) – NHS Digital

The example document Technical Annex – Patient Allocation (XLSX,48KB) accompanying the publication of April 2019 data shows the impact of this change at the provider level in April 2019. The national figures are unaffected by this change.

Changes to Provisional and Final Data

For data to March 2018 / Quarter 4 2017/18, monthly cancer waiting times data was classed as provisional and quarterly data classed as final, therefore the sum of the standalone months in a quarter do not necessarily match the standalone quarterly data.

From April 2018 / Quarter 1 2018/19 onwards, monthly and quarterly data are synchronized. Both monthly and quarterly data are first released as provisional data, and subsequently finalised in line with the NHS England revisions policy. Each year, there are two revisions to cover from April to September data (the earliest these would be published is in January), and from October to March data (the earliest these would be published is in July).

Clinical Review of Standards Field Test

Please see note below on the publication of data from August 2019 onwards. Reporting for all providers and commissioners resumed from July 2022 data.

Publication of Cancer Waiting Times data CRS-15 April 2021

Further information about guidance and data submission dates

For further information about guidance please visit the Cancer Waiting Times guidance here.

Management Information

Weekly management information on the cancer 62 day backlog for NHS acute providers is available here: MI on cancer

Contact us

For further information about the published statistics, please contact us at:

Cancer Waiting Times Team
NHS England
7 & 8 Wellington Place
Leeds
LS1 4AP
Great Britain
Email: england.cancerwaitsdata@nhs.net

Alternatively, if you are a patient or carer wishing to discuss your experience of waiting times, you should contact your local commissioner, which you can find elsewhere on the NHS England website.