The NHS

Statistics published by the Welsh Government. Each chart covers the years since the 2016 Senedd election, or as far back as the figures go, and marks each election since.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

How we show official statistics

The Programme for Government 2026 to 2030 belongs to the Seventh Senedd. Choose the Seventh Senedd to see how often each commitment has come up.

Source: Welsh Government, Programme for government 2026 to 2030: New ambition for Wales, first published on 10 September 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Mentions are found by matching the names of plans, bodies and schemes; a mention says nothing about progress.

The latest headlines on this brief, linking to each outlet's story.

• Cardiff scientist awarded £500,000 for cancer treatment research

  Nation.Cymru, 23 October 2026

• Senedd backs calls for inclusion of prostate cancer in national strategy

  Nation.Cymru, 23 October 2026

• Senedd backs calls for inclusion of prostate cancer in national strategy

  Herald.Wales, 23 October 2026

• Saundersfoot Rotary Club raises £2,369 for prostate cancer charity

  Western Telegraph, 23 October 2026

Statements, debates and legislation in Plenary on this brief, newest first. Oral question sessions are counted in the contributions below.

1. 22 January 2025Debate

   Cancer services

   Welsh Conservatives Debate

   Opened by Y Dirprwy Lywydd / The Deputy Presiding Officer26 contributions

2. 3 July 2024Debate

   Safer skin: The role of schools in preventing skin cancer

   Short Debate

   Opened by Y Dirprwy Lywydd / The Deputy Presiding Officer12 contributions

3. 15 May 2024Debate

   Women's journey through gynaecological cancer'

   Debate on the Health and Social Care Committee Report, 'Unheard

   Opened by Y Dirprwy Lywydd / The Deputy Presiding Officer19 contributions

4. 24 January 2024Debate

   A burning issue: Tackling oesophageal and stomach cancer in Wales

   Short Debate

   Opened by Y Dirprwy Lywydd / The Deputy Presiding Officer13 contributions

5. 6 December 2023Debate

   Pancreatic cancer

   Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv)

   Opened by Y Dirprwy Lywydd / The Deputy Presiding Officer19 contributions

6. 14 June 2023Debate

   Cancer inequalities in Wales

   Short Debate

   Opened by Y Llywydd / The Llywydd15 contributions

7. 25 April 2023Statement

   The National Diagnostic Strategy

   Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services

   Opened by Y Dirprwy Lywydd / The Deputy Presiding Officer13 contributions

8. 31 January 2023Statement

   Cancer Services Improvement Plan

   Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services

   Opened by Y Dirprwy Lywydd / The Deputy Presiding Officer17 contributions

Votes are tagged from their own titles and the agenda item they were held under.

Ministers' meetings with outside organisations and their engagements on this brief, from the register the Welsh Government publishes every three months. 3 since the 2026 election; the latest:

1. 24 September 2026

   Wales Cancer Alliance meeting (with CMHC/DMSCMHWH)

   Meeting, Deputy Minister for Public and Preventative Health

2. 24 September 2026

   Cynghrair Canser Cymru / Wales Cancer Alliance

   Meeting, Cabinet Minister for Health and Care

3. 23 September 2026

   Kids Get Cancer Too Event

   Meeting, First Minister of Wales

Source: Welsh Government, ministerial meetings and engagements. The register is published three months or more after the meetings it lists.

• 74% of Welsh adults said the NHS would be very important to their vote.

Ipsos asked 747 Welsh adults aged 16+ between 2 April 2026 and 8 April 2026, before the 2026 Senedd election. People could choose as many issues as they liked. More on public opinion.

No written questions on this brief in the Sixth Senedd yet.

No petitions on this brief opened in the Sixth Senedd.

Committee sessions where this brief was on the agenda, newest first.

1. 21 September 2023Health and Social Care Committee

   evidence session with the Minister for Health and Social Services

   Gynaecological cancers

   144 contributions

2. 29 June 2023Health and Social Care Committee

   Panel 8

   Gynaecological cancers

   113 contributions

3. 29 June 2023Health and Social Care Committee

   Panel 7

   Gynaecological cancers

   95 contributions

4. 14 June 2023Health and Social Care Committee

   Panel 6

   Gynaecological cancers

   135 contributions

5. 14 June 2023Health and Social Care Committee

   Panel 5 - Public Health Wales

   Gynaecological cancers

   106 contributions

6. 10 May 2023Health and Social Care Committee

   Panel 4

   Gynaecological cancers

   96 contributions

7. 10 May 2023Health and Social Care Committee

   Panel 3

   Gynaecological cancers

   108 contributions

8. 27 April 2023Health and Social Care Committee

   Panel 2

   Gynaecological cancers

   131 contributions

Articles by Senedd Research, the Senedd's impartial research service, on this brief, published in the Sixth Senedd.

1. What you need to know about health screening programmes in Wales: UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2025

   3 September 2025

   Screening programmes are an important public health tool. They can identify increased risk of disease among apparently healthy people, enabling them to access earlier, more effective treatment where appropriate.

More from Senedd Research on this subject

Titles and summaries are Senedd Research's own, © Senedd Commission. How we match articles to briefs.

1,741 contributions in the Sixth Senedd, newest first.

1. Mabon ap GwynforPlaid

   16 January 2025, Health and Social Care Committee

   Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26

   'At Tenovus Cancer Care, we deliver essential services for people affected by cancer including counselling, nurse-led support, and benefits advice. This is provided free of charge, exclusively to the NHS'—

   Tagged for: “Cancer”Official Record

2. Jeremy MilesLabour

   16 January 2025, Health and Social Care Committee

   Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26

   …overall funding pressure, which is obvious, and the points that I made earlier about the investment in diagnostic equipment, for example, and the capital investment in that, but there are also ways in which services can be differently delivered. For example, we are clear that some services are…

   Tagged for: “diagnostic”, “MRI”, “CT scanners”Official Record

3. James EvansConservative

   16 January 2025, Health and Social Care Committee

   Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26

   …And the First Minister's priorities are mental health, women's health, driving down waiting lists and cancer services. If a health board can't find a balanced position next year, they are going to have to make cuts to services, aren't they? We have already seen that with Powys, and what's been…

   Tagged for: “cancer”Official Record

4. Jeremy MilesLabour

   16 January 2025, Health and Social Care Committee

   Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26

   …you suggest. Preventative programmes are relevant to more than one disease. So, obesity is relevant to cancer, but also to diabetes and a lot of other conditions. So, it's not sensible to break down preventative work per disease. There are broader issues at play. There are a variety of things in the…

   Tagged for: “cancer”Translated from WelshOfficial Record

5. Mabon ap GwynforPlaid

   16 January 2025, Health and Social Care Committee

   Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26

   …had cut the funding for the Government's preventative health programmes. The Audit Wales report on cancer this week referred to that criticism of cutting preventative programmes. So, where do preventative programmes lie in your priorities, and can we expect to see an increase in the budget…

   Tagged for: “cancer”Translated from WelshOfficial Record

6. Jeremy MilesLabour

   16 January 2025, Health and Social Care Committee

   Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26

   …I reached was to say, 'Well, I think we need to be putting as much of that additional funding into diagnostic equipment,' for example, and so the case then isn't necessarily a business case for a particular piece of kit. It's a, 'Let's create a fund that we can then allocate during the course of the…

   Tagged for: “diagnostic”Official Record

7. Jeremy MilesLabour

   16 January 2025, Health and Social Care Committee

   Welsh Government draft budget 2025-26

   …we have modern equipment for the digital programme that we have, then there is funding for additional diagnostic equipment, which will have a bearing on increasing our productivity. There are specific capital projects in there that are designed to improve productivity. There is an additional fund of…

   Tagged for: “diagnostic”Official Record

8. Jeremy MilesLabour

   15 January 2025, Plenary

   Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting times

   …this year. We're supporting, I think, a vision for the future of the NHS, with regional plans for a diagnostic and surgical hub in Llantrisant, but it's not just new buildings or new legislation that will transform care. Changing pathways, how care is provided, is more fundamental. At the moment—and…

   Tagged for: “diagnostic”Official Record

9. Jeremy MilesLabour

   15 January 2025, Plenary

   Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting times

   …years, as compared to almost 10 per cent when the figures were at their peak. The long waiting time for diagnostic tests have reduced by 35 per cent. Also, the waiting time on average between referral and treatment has reduced from 29 weeks to a little under 23 weeks. The health service is making…

   Tagged for: “diagnostic”Translated from WelshOfficial Record

10. Buffy WilliamsLabour

    15 January 2025, Plenary

    Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting times

    …as possible in her final days. There's also the Snowdrop Breast Centre, a facility dedicated to breast cancer care, offering everything from diagnosis to follow-up appointments under one roof. This joined-up care means patients are seen far sooner, and their treatment plans can be more effectively…

    Tagged for: “cancer”, “diagnostic”, “MRI”Official Record

11. Gareth DaviesConservative

    15 January 2025, Plenary

    Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting times

    …going to provide something tangible? Will they finally agree to expand the number of surgical hubs and diagnostic centres, which the Welsh Conservatives have been calling for for years? And are you going to increase the number of available beds in the Welsh NHS by finally fixing the social care…

    Tagged for: “diagnostic”Official Record

12. Carolyn ThomasLabour

    15 January 2025, Plenary

    Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting times

    …million to tackle the longest waiting lists. This is providing more evening and weekend clinics, more diagnostic tests, and more operations between October 2024 and March 2025, going forward. We're seeing progress on this issue. Two-year waits have fallen by two thirds since their peak in the COVID…

    Tagged for: “diagnostic”Official Record

13. James EvansConservative

    15 January 2025, Plenary

    Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting times

    …to tell you what we’re for. We're for establishing centres of excellence, more surgical hubs and rapid diagnostic centres to reduce waiting times, expanding hospital bed capacity to ease overcrowding. Under this Labour Government we've lost 4,227 beds from our hospitals, and that can't continue. We…

    Tagged for: “diagnostic”Official Record

14. Tom GiffardConservative

    15 January 2025, Plenary

    Welsh Conservatives Debate: New UK Government's first six months

    …vanity projects. And these hikes hit not only our businesses, they hit our charities too. Tenovus Cancer Care's called the rise devastating, warning they'll pay an extra £0.25 million per year towards the increased NI contributions. That's a huge sum, which otherwise would have gone towards vital…

    Tagged for: “Cancer”Official Record

15. Jeremy MilesLabour

    15 January 2025, Plenary

    Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care

    …services everywhere, by the way, but it’s certainly one that I would recognise here. So, in terms of cancer data specifically, which is what his question was about, we have, actually, improved the publicly available data, and we publish on a monthly basis about 18 pages of cancer treatment…

    Tagged for: “cancer”Official Record

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