Inequalities in cancer survival persist across Wales, and people in deprived areas continue to face delays accessing treatment, says a Senedd committee report which also warns that improvements in Wales compares poorly with other countries.
The Auditor General for Wales’s report on Cancer Services in Wales, published in January 2025, highlighted a widening gap in five-year survival rates – 69% for people living in the most affluent areas compared with 51% in the most deprived.
The Senedd’s Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee says these inequalities highlight persistent problems in access to timely diagnosis and treatment, variations in services between health boards, and barriers to screening uptake in disadvantaged groups.
Cancer screening is clearly vital in improving outcomes for patients, and the Committee is calling for direct intervention from the Welsh Government and Public Health Wales to help increase uptake.
Failure to meet national 62-day target
The Committee also raises serious concerns about the continued failure to meet the Welsh Government’s national 62 day target for starting treatment. The latest data for November 2025 show only 58% of treatments start before this target, far short of the Government’s ambition of 75%. The figure has stayed between 52% and 64% since 2020.
For some cancers – including gynaecological, urological and lower gastrointestinal – fewer than half of patients begin treatment within 62 days. Delays between diagnosis and treatment have also worsened. Between February 2021 and November 2025 median waits from diagnosis to treatment increased by 48% from 21 days to 31.
Clearer leadership, faster diagnosis and a long-term cancer strategy
While improvements have been made in some areas, the Committee warns that Wales continues to lag behind other UK nations and comparable countries internationally.
The Chair of the Senedd’s Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee, Mark Isherwood MS, said:
“Living with a cancer diagnosis places immense psychological, physical, and practical strain on individuals and their families. Cancer patients and their families deserve better than the level of performance we are seeing in Wales. The Welsh Government has set the national vision for cancer care, and it must now show far stronger leadership to deliver it.
“Waiting times remain unacceptable, inequalities are widening, and essential reforms are progressing far too slowly. The Government must grip this urgently - because without decisive national leadership, cancer outcomes in Wales will continue to fall short of what patients rightly expect and deserve.”
The report concludes that national leadership arrangements remain too fragmented and that Wales lacks a clear long-term cancer strategy. It calls on the Welsh Government to:
- Clarify who is responsible for leading cancer improvement nationally and how the Welsh Government will hold health boards to account.
- Set out the future of the Cancer Improvement Plan and how health boards will be required to deliver it.
- Strengthen cancer prevention through a clearer, joined‑up national approach.
- Fix data and digital gaps by improving data quality, publishing fuller performance data, and enabling better digital integration.
- Address workforce challenges and prioritise the acceleration of digital solutions, including the use of artificial intelligence.
