Cancer Waiting Times Statistics Developments and Plans

This page brings together information around developments to cancer waiting times statistics, including user engagement, in response to a review by Office for Statistics Regulation. It will be updated periodically, as and when further developments are planned.

We produce statistics on Cancer Services to provide information around performance against monthly targets listed below, further contextual information and a comprehensive set of data made available here.

We are using the Cancer Waiting Times Dataset to underpin published outputs. This dataset is at an aggregate level and examines performance against the standards.

We have included information on the background surrounding the production of the official statistics within the monthly statistical release. As part of this, we explore topics such as Data availability, Data comparability and Methodology. Within this document, we also include time series charts of monthly performance against the standards, and average performance over the last 12 months and how this compares from the previous 12 months.

We are exploring the feasibility of publishing more granular tumour data (for the 31-day and 62-day standards) and further breakdowns of Faster Diagnosis Standard split by Cancer diagnosed and Cancer ruled out. (Winter 2025) 

We are also exploring publication of 31-day and 62-day standard data broken down by both tumour type and treatment modality, and will consult on the most beneficial presentation. (Spring 2026)

We are currently working on the presentation of our statistics to ensure they are easy to use for a wide range of users. As a first step we have produced our publications and extracts in our enhanced structure to make them more accessible, following the proceeding publication of skeleton versions. (November 2025) In the coming months, we will further engage with users to understand their needs in relation to health inequalities. (Winter 2025) We are also working on a public dashboard to allow our users to explore the Cancer Waiting Times data in an interactive way, and aim to complete early next year. (Spring 2026)

As a first step in our development plan in September, we published an England level publication on the Faster Diagnosis Standard at a suspected tumour level by those diagnosed with cancer and those not diagnosed with cancer. As part of our new presentation of statistics, we will include a further breakdown of the figures by Provider (Winter 2025). We welcome any feedback on this to england.cancerwaitingtimesdata@nhs.net.

The aim of our publication is to measure government and NHS targets so many of our outputs are driven by government decisions around the target so we will add further details when there are specific decisions around individual targets.

OSR compliance assessment

In June 2025, the Office for Statistics Regulation undertook an exercise to assess the Code of Practice for Statistics compliance of the Statistics about cancer waiting times published by NHS England. The report can be found here.

Engagement with users of CWT statistics

We welcome feedback from users and have a number of mechanisms to gather this, drawing both on existing approaches to gather feedback from users across statistical areas, and approaches tailored to cancer waiting times.

We welcome feedback on our cancer outputs, including the option of giving their contact details enabling us to reach out for further discussions

You can contact us by emailing england.cancerwaitsdata@england.nhs.net

Internal engagement

We will continue regular engagement with a range of NHS England Programme and Department of Health and Social Care colleagues who use our CWT statistics for programme development and delivery, performance monitoring and quality improvement work.

We engage with key individuals across the organisation. This includes regular outputs and meetings, as well as responses to ad hoc requests for analysis and information.

We will maintain engagement with other data and analytical teams across NHS England including in the regions to ensure consistent and coherent use of our CWT statistics in a variety of outputs and tools.

Other engagement

We routinely engage with a range of organisations that regularly use the CWT statistics that we produce including the Department for Health and Social Care.