Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she plans to take to (a) help ensure equality of access to radiotherapy, (b) recruit more staff, (c) acquire more equipment and (d) otherwise increase radiotherapy capacity.

The Government and NHS England are already taking steps to ensure that cancer patients can receive high quality radiotherapy treatment across England. This includes supporting advances in radiotherapy using cutting-edge imaging and technology to help target radiation doses at cancer cells more precisely.

Despite the impact of the pandemic and recent industrial action, 340,530 people received their first cancer treatment in the 12 months to November 2023, a record high. Between 2016 and 2021, the Government invested £162 million to replace or upgrade around 100 radiotherapy treatment machines. This is in addition to funds invested by National Health Service trusts from their capital budgets or donations. However, responsibility for investing in radiotherapy machines has sat with integrated care boards since April 2022, with guidance advising systems to replace the majority of radiotherapy equipment at 10 years of age.

NHS England is supporting the growth of the cancer workforce, including radiotherapy, through the NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan to ensure that we have staff to meet the projected growth in demand for cancer treatment. In October 2023 there were over 34,900 full-time equivalent staff in the cancer workforce, an increase of over 12,400, or 55.3%, since October 2010.

NHS England is expanding diagnostic capacity for cancer, including through the roll-out of our new community diagnostic centres (CDCs). These have delivered over six million tests since July 2021, including vital cancer checks. CDCs will deliver up to 17 million tests by March 2025, with capacity for nine million more a year once all are fully operational.