To ask the Minister of Health (i) what plans he has to carry out a metastatic breast cancer audit, similar to that being carried out in England and Wales, and planned in Scotland; (ii) for his assessment of the benefits such an audit could bring to patients; and (iii) how this will fit into the Cancer Strategy.

Unfortunately it is not possible for Northern Ireland (NI) to begin conducting Metastatic Breast Cancer Audits because we do not currently have the required legislation regarding the secondary use of data. In addition, NI Health Trusts do not currently collect and organise the necessary data.

Currently, NI cancer performance standards apply to patients with a new diagnosis of cancer only. Consequently, much of our information system is geared towards tracking and collating information on new patients and information on the incidence and prevalence of patients with metastatic disease is limited. As cancer survival has improved it has become increasingly important to understand the diagnostic, treatment and support needs of patients with metastatic disease or secondary cancer and we can see the potential benefits of such an audit for these patients. When we are in a position to carry out these audits we can identify and monitor where people with secondary cancer are and what the primary cancer was in order to ensure we are providing equitable cancer care.

The new NI 10 year Cancer Strategy identifies the need for developments in data collection, coordination and application and makes a commitment to improved effective data collection. It highlights the need to ensure that waiting time standards are in place for all cancers, to include secondary cancers. In doing so, it underlines the requirement to record and report information on patients with secondary cancer.

In addition a commitment has been made to carry out a review of the use of data in cancer healthcare, to ensure that the data collected is used to deliver better cancer care for every patient including those with secondary breast cancer.