Baroness Finlay secures government support for cancer registration


A House of Lords balloted debate on cancer registration took place today. Baroness Finlay of Llandaff made a detailed plea for more explicit government support of cancer registration. She won support from all sides of the house in a debate where there was little dissent. The main themes of the debate were:


  • National, population based cancer registration is vital to the delivery of the National Cancer Plan.


  • The balance between wider public health needs and patient confidentiality needs to be established, so that cancer registration can continue.


  • The funding of cancer registries and the services they provide needs to be organised nationally; the current local arrangements are not working well.


    • Lord Warner spoke for the government. He committed them to find a national funding system for English cancer registries in 2004. He noted the remarks made in the debate about confidentiality and making cancer a notifiable disease, but made no commitment on legislation.


    The full debate can be read on Hansard.