Abstract Aim To identify the most relevant clinical factors in the National Bowel Cancer Audit (NBOCA) that contribute to the variation in the quality of care provided in different hospitals for colorectal cancer patients undergoing surgery. Method Data from 36,116 patients with colorectal cancer who had undergone surgery were retrospectively collected from the NBOCA and analysed from 145 and 146 hospitals over two years. A validated multiple linear regression was performed to compare the identified clinical factors with various quality outcomes. The quality outcomes defined in this study were the length of hospitalisation, 2-year mortality, readmission rate, 90-day mortality, and 18-month stoma rate. Results Four clinical factors (laparoscopy rate, abdominal-perineal-resection-of-rectum (APER), pre-operative radiotherapy and patients with distant metastases) were shown to have a significant (p < 0.05) impact on the length of hospitalisation and 18-month stoma rate. 18-month stoma rate was also significantly associated with 2-year mortality. External validation of the regression model demonstrated the Root-Mean-Square-Error of 0.811 and 4.62 for 18-month stoma rate and 2-year mortality respectively. Conclusions Hospitals should monitor the four clinical factors for patients with colorectal cancer during perioperative care. Clinicians should consider these factors along with the individual patients’ history when formulating a management plan for patients with colorectal cancer.