Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Royal College of Radiologists’ Workforce Census Report 2022, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of that report's findings on (a) additional costs for clinical directors to meet imaging demand and (b) the cost of outsourcing scans; and what steps his Department plans to take to ensure radiology departments are sustainable financially.

No specific assessment has been made. To support the workforce as a whole, we have commissioned NHS England to develop a long term plan for the next 15 years, which will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future. The plan is for the whole of the National Health Service workforce and will not provide detailed assessments for individual services.