Cancer Waiting Times Data Collection (CWT)
The national Cancer Waiting Times (CWT) system allows NHS providers to record data derived from patient care activity. This data can be used to monitor cancer waiting times targets or plan service improvements. As a patient moves through the stages of their treatment pathway data on referrals, treatments and diagnosis are derived from care records locally (decisions on how to collect these data from local systems are made locally).
If you are new to the system, please refer to the User Manual and other supporting documentation in our Guidance section.
The national cancer waiting times monitoring dataset guidance v12.0 provides information on the Cancer Waiting Times standards, with the updates to the standards applied from the 1 October 2023.
Frequency: Monthly
Launch and submission dates
The Cancer Waiting Times Database will be shut down at 5pm on the Upload Deadline dates below. This is to allow the reports to be generated overnight. The system will become available at 9am the following morning, at which point the newly generated reports will be available.
Uploads must be submitted to the upload queue before 5pm on the Upload Deadline dates below in order for the data to be included in the generated reports. The upload process will be allowed to fully process all entries in the queue before the reports are generated.
We recommend that you aim to complete uploads a few days prior to the deadlines, to allow time to check your data and make any necessary corrections.
Records can be manually created or modified using the Record screen up until the time when the system is closed down at 5pm on the Upload Deadline dates below.
Monthly data submissions
There is limit of 10,000 records per bulk upload on the Cancer Waiting Times system.
Whilst the six-month revisions are still open to bulk submission changes, you can break up any submissions over 10,000 records by using time periods (one submission per month for example) when creating bulk files through your data collection and reporting systems (Infoflex/Somerset or other local system).
Report generation
Reports are generated on the first working day following the on screen edits deadline.
Quarterly reports are automatically generated by the system from the monthly reports. That is, the quarterly reports do not include changes to months 1 and 2 of the quarter as was the case on the Open Exeter system.
Both monthly and quarterly reports are updated via revisions whereby twice per year revisions to April to September, and October to March data are processed.
Final upload deadlines and report generation dates for the Cancer Waiting Times System
Months required to be submitted | Bulk upload deadline | On screen edits deadline | Reports generated | Report generation date |
---|---|---|---|---|
Revisions April 2024 to September 2024 | 2 December 2024 | 3 December 2024 | Revised Final: April 2024 to September 2024, Q1 2024-25, Q2 2024-25 | 4 December 2024 |
November 2024 | 2 January 2025 | 3 January 2025 | November 2024 | 6 January 2025 |
December 2024 | 31 January 2025 | 3 February 2025 | December 2024, Q3 2024-25 | 4 February 2025 |
January 2025 | 4 March 2025 | 5 March 2025 | January 2025 | 6 March 2025 |
February 2025 | 1 April 2025 | 2 April 2025 | February 2025 | 3 April 2025 |
March 2025 | 30 April 2025 | 1 May 2025 | March 2025, Q4 2024-25 | 2 May 2025 |
April 2025 | 3 June 2025 | 4 June 2025 | April 2025 | 5 June 2025 |
Revisions October 2024 to March 2025 | 3 June 2025 | 4 June 2025 | Revised final: October 2024 to March 2025, Q3 2024-25, Q4 2024-25 | 5 June 2025 |
May 2025 | 1 July 2025 | 2 July 2025 | May 2025 | 3 July 2025 |
June 2025 | 30 July 2025 | 31 July 2025 | June 2025, Q1 2025-26 | 1 August 2025 |
July 2025 | 2 September 2025 | 3 September 2025 | July 2025 | 4 September 2025 |
August 2025 | 30 September 2025 | 1 October 2025 | August 2025 | 2 October 2025 |
September 2025 | 30 October 2025 | 31 October 2025 |
September 2025, Q2 2025-26 |
1 November 2025 |
October 2025 | 2 December 2025 | 3 December 2025 | October 2025 | 4 December 2025 |
April 2025 to September 2025 | 2 December 2025 | 3 December 2025 | Revised final: April 2025 to September 2025, Q1 2025-26, Q2 2025-26 | 4 December 2025 |
November 2025 | 2 January 2026 | 5 January 2026 | November 2025 | 6 January 2026 |
December 2025 | 2 February 2026 | 3 February 2026 | December 2025, Q3 2025-26 | 4 February 2026 |
January 2026 | 3 March 2026 | 4 March 2026 | January 2026 | 5 March 2026 |
February 2026 | 31 March 2026 | 1 April 2026 | February 2026 | 2 April 2026 |
March 2026 | 5 May 2026 | 6 May 2026 | March 2026 | 7 May 2026 |
As of the December 2020 submission (deadline of 2nd to 3rd February 2021), all submissions are required to be in the Dataset 2.1 format.
More information is available on the DCB0147: National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set page.
Guidance
Document |
Publication date/review date |
---|---|
Cancer Waiting Times User Manual | 2 November 2022 |
Release history | 12 March 2023 |
Cancer Waiting Times support | 15 November 2021 |
National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Dataset Guidance v12.0 | 1 October 2023 |
DCB0147: National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set | 2 April 2020 |
Dermatology Faster Diagnosis Standard clarification guidance | 28 September 2021 |
12 March 2021 |
|
Guidance for Merging Organisations | 20 May 2021 |
IPT6 Guidance | 1 April 2021 |
2 November 2023 |
|
Cancer Waiting Times Validation Rules v2.1.2 | 9 June 2025 |
Clarification of cancer waiting times guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic | 4 January 2021 |
2 November 2023 |
|
Old Clinical coding for Cancer Waiting Times Standard (pre 1 October 2023) | 1 April 2012 |
Advice and Guidance recommendations for cancer pathways |
Contact details
To raise an issue with the Cancer Waiting Times System contact the National Service Desk:
National Service Desk
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0300 303 5035
To raise an issue regarding policy, procedure or national statistics contact the Cancer Waiting Times team at NHS England email [email protected].
Last edited: 9 June 2025 12:59 pm