Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to replace aging equipment in the NHS.

Individual National Health Service organisations are responsible for maintaining and replacing their existing assets. One source of funding for aging equipment is operational capital, which is issued to integrated care boards to prioritise the capital needs of the NHS, including renewal and replacement of plant, IT, and equipment. In order to facilitate the ongoing requirement for equipment, the Department has provided £4.2 billion in operational capital in 2023/24, amounting to over £12 billion over the spending review period of 2022/23 to 2024/25.

In addition to operational capital is the £2.3 billion which has been provided over the spending review period to transform diagnostic services, including replacing old equipment, and deliver 160 community diagnostic centres. One aim of this funding is to clear the current backlog of equipment over 10 years old by the end of the spending review period.