Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase the number of radiologists in cancer centres.

As of October 2023, there are currently over 5,600 full time equivalent doctors working in the speciality of clinical radiology, within National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England. This is over 300 or 5.7% more than in 2023, over 1,000 or 22% more than in 2019, and over 2,200 or 66.8% more than in 2010.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) published by NHS England on 30 June 2023 sets out an aim to double the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 places a year by 2031/32, and to work towards this expansion by increasing places by a third, to 10,000 a year by 2028/29. The LTWP has committed to an adequate growth in foundation placement capacity, as those taking up these new places begin to graduate, and to a commensurate increase in specialty training places that meets the demands of the NHS in the future. This will substantially increase the potential pipeline for the radiologist workforce.