FOI 2026/1569

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Background and public interest

I am a clinical academic General Practitioner working on the ThinkCancer! study, a UK-wide research programme evaluating an educational intervention for general practice teams to support timely identification and referral of patients with suspected cancer (https://www.bangor.ac.uk/thinkcancer).

As part of this work, we are evaluating cancer referral activity and outcomes for GP practices, including practices within the area covered by Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership. Attempts to obtain data via informal routes over the past 12 months have not been successful; therefore, I am submitting this request under the Freedom of Information Act as an alternative route.

The information requested is, I believe, clearly in the public interest, as it relates to cancer referral pathways, improving early diagnosis of cancer, and NHS service performance.

Information requested

Please provide the following information held at Health Board (Wales) / Integrated Care Board (England) level for the years 2023, 2024, and 2025 (calendar years, or financial years if calendar year data is not held).

I am requesting data already held within electronic referral systems. No manual case review and no patient-identifiable data is requested.

1. Suspected cancer referrals from general practice

An anonymised breakdown of suspected cancer (USC / 2WW) referrals received from GP practices within your area.

For each referral, where held within the electronic referral system, please provide:

GP practice identifier

Date of referral (or month and year of referral if exact date is not held)

Referral pathway and specialty referred to

No patient-identifiable data is requested.

2. Conversion rate data

Any conversion rate data held by the Health Board / Integrated Care Board for USC referrals.

By conversion rate, I mean the proportion of USC referrals that subsequently result in a confirmed cancer diagnosis.

If this information is not held or is not extractable from electronic systems, please confirm this.

3. Downgraded USC referrals

Any data held within electronic referral systems relating to USC referrals that were subsequently downgraded, re-triaged, or redirected to a non-urgent pathway.

Where available, please provide:

The number or proportion of referrals downgraded

The year of referral

If this information is not held or is not extractable from electronic systems, please confirm this.

We recognise that the following information may not be routinely available or easily accessible at all Health Board / Integrated Care Board level; however, we are aware that some organisations are able to extract and provide this information, and we would be grateful for any relevant data that are held.

4. Detection rate data

Any detection rate data held by the Health Board / Integrated Care Board, defined as the proportion of all cancer diagnoses that were made following a USC referral, as opposed to diagnosis following urgent or routine referral, acute hospital admission, or emergency department attendance (often referred to as “emergency route diagnosis”).

If this information is not held or is not extractable from electronic systems, please confirm this.

5. Practice-level referral rates

Referral rates for suspected cancer from each GP practice, expressed as a proportion of the registered practice population, where held by the Health Board / Integrated Care Board.

If this information is not held, please confirm this.

Additional notes

If any part of this request exceeds the cost limit under Section 12 of the Act, I would be grateful if you could advise how the request might be refined to allow partial disclosure.

If the information requested is held by another organisation, please advise accordingly.

Please provide the data in electronic format (e.g. Excel or CSV) where possible.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require clarification of any of the points above or of the data items requested.

Clarity Requested 26 January 2026:

I write in response to your Freedom of Information request received by NHS Greater Manchester on 20 January 2026.

I would like to explain that I have shared you request for information with the relevant colleagues, and to ensure we are able to provide you with the correct information, I would be grateful if you could you provide the following clarity:

Question 2 & 4 – Any conversion rate data held by the Health Board / Integrated Care Board for USC referrals” and “Any detection rate data held by the Health Board / Integrated Care Board.”  Please would you be able to provide more detail about the information you would like to receive, for example, please can you confirm that you are wanting to receive three figures, one for each year of overall conversion/detection rates.

Please can I ask that you provide the clarity requested as soon as possible to ensure we are able to respond to you within the 20-working day deadline.

Clarity Received 29 January 2026:

Yes, for the conversion rate and detection rate (as well as the other data requested) three separate figures – one for each year (2023, 2024, and 2025) would be the most helpful format. Calendar years or financial years would both be ok, whichever is simplest to collate).

1. I can confirm that the NHS Greater Manchester (NHS GM) holds the information requested, however we consider this to be exempt under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is because to breakdown the data by the combined criteria provided (GP practice identifier, date of referral, referral pathway and specialty referred to) may lead to the identification of individuals thus disclosing their personal data.

Section 40(2) of the FOIA provides that personal data relating to other persons is exempt information if disclosure would breach the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). We consider that disclosure of this information is likely to breach the first data protection principle in Schedule 1 to the DPA, which relates to the fair and lawful processing of personal data.

Therefore, we have concluded that this information is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2). This exemption is not subject to the public interest test.

In line with section 16 – advise and assist you may wish to refine your request by reviewing your breakdown criteria. We are more likely to be able to provide information in the aggregate. For example, providing the total numbers of referrals per GP practice per year rather than at an individual referral level – you may wish to consider amending your request along this or similar lines.

2.

3.NHS GM does not hold the information requested. Therefore, it will be necessary for you to contact the provider organisations for the information you seek. In line with section 16 advise and assist, please find links to the Trust’s websites below, and information about how to make a Freedom of Information request.

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of information – Bolton NHS FT (boltonft.nhs.uk)

Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of Information Requests :: Northern Care Alliance

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of Information – Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (mft.nhs.uk)

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of Information – Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of Information Requests :: Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care (tamesideandglossopicft.nhs.uk)

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – WWL Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | FOI Disclosure Log

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust – Freedom of information disclosure logs (christie.nhs.uk)

4.

5. GP Practice population sizes for each year are held at month snapshot level. The population size snapshots for July of each year have been used in calculation.

**An excel sheet was sent to the requester as the response.  If you require a copy of the full response, please contact NHS GM’s FOI team – nhsgm.foi@nhs.net **