Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department (a) has made and (b) plans to make of the adequacy the funding of diagnostic imaging equipment.

At the 2021 Spending Review, £2.3 billion was awarded to transform diagnostic services over the next three years. Most of this will help deliver our ambition to increase the number of Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services. Funding will also provide additional diagnostic equipment to increase imaging capacity in acute settings, as well as increasing capacity for endoscopy and mammography screening, and improving digital diagnostics.

On 31 October 2023, the previous Secretary of State committed to publishing updated data on the number of MRI and CT scanners operational across the NHS in England. This publication is expected in the coming months.

We continue to work with NHS England to understand the demand for imaging services, as well as wider diagnostic demand.