To ask the Minister of Health to detail (i) the number of allied health professional cancer business cases that have remained unreviewed or unapproved, since 2016; and (ii) the length of time that they have been outstanding.

My Department does not maintain a central dataset that identifies all Allied Health Professional (AHP) cancer-related business cases submitted across the Health and Social Care (HSC) system since 2016, nor does it gather information on the number of such cases that have remained unreviewed or unapproved over that period.

The development, submission and initial consideration of business cases for service developments are primarily matters for individual HSC Trusts. Trusts are responsible for prioritising proposals within their allocated budgets and for progressing business cases through the appropriate approval processes.