VITAL information about the severity of cancer is not recorded in three-quarters of Oxfordshire cases, an investigation has found.

Doctors are not recording enough information in about 1,875 out of 2,500 cancer diagnoses in Oxfordshire every year, according to a House of Commons committee.

The committee said poor data affected the Government’s ability to allocate cancer cash as the full picture was not available.

Oxfordshire’s figure for ‘staging data’ about the severity of a patient’s cancer was 25 per centcompared to 15 per cent being recorded in the North West and almost 70 per cent in the East of England.

The report, by the public accounts committee, said: “Staging data is key to making better use of resources and improving outcomes, but only the Eastern region has anything like acceptable coverage.”

It said the Department of Health must ensure doctors understood the “value and importance of recording accurate staging data at the point of patient diagnosis”.

The committee looked at how cancer services had changed since the Government’s 2000 cancer strategy and 2007 Cancer Reform Strategy.

It said that by 2012 at least 70 per cent of cases should have the right data recorded.

Care services minister Paul Burstow said the report highlighted the need to reform the NHS The Government is to hand most of its budget to GPs, arguing they know best where cash should be spent.

Mr Burstow said: “It is unacceptable that our cancer survival rates lag way behind our European neighbours, when we spend the equivalent amount on healthcare.

“The coalition Government has taken swift action to help improve cancer survival rates since May last year.

“We have already launched a new £60m bowel cancer screening service, a £25m fund to improve diagnostics in the community, £50m more on a cancer drugs fund, and set out plans for an extra 1,200 cancer specialists who will be in post by 2012.”

NHS Oxfordshire, which decides how and where county health cash is spent, said last night that it could not explain its poor performance as the right staff member was not available.

A spokesman for the authority, also known as the PCT, said: “Staging would be recorded in the clinical records as part of developing a treatment plan.

“There is a requirement in the PCT 2010/11 contract with the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust that this data is recorded in line with the requirements of the local cancer registry.”