Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to tender for additional proton beam therapy treatment providers.

The decision to commission services from additional proton beam therapy (PBT) centres would likely be triggered by an existing supplier no longer being able to deliver services and/or NHS England having capacity requirements that could not be met by the existing providers.

In the event NHS England required additional PBT providers, these would be selected through a procurement exercise.

There is currently no indication that NHS England will need to seek additional providers but it will, of course, keep this position under review.