Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support his Department provides to the Great Western Hospital NHS Trust for the building of a new radiotherapy centre.

We are advised that on 7 May 2014, the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) Capital Investment Group approved an outline business case by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust for the expansion of radiotherapy services at Swindon. The Trust is now developing a full business case, which will need to be aligned with the outcome of NHS England’s review of radiotherapy services nationally.

We are further advised by the NHS TDA that the expected total capital cost of the scheme is £14.7 million and the scheme will be funded through the NHS Trust’s own internally generated capital resources (£11 million), charitable funds (£2.5 million) and Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group contribution (£1.2 million).

We are informed that, to date, the Department’s Independent Trust Financing Facility has not received an application for a capital investment loan from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust in relation to the new radiotherapy centre in Swindon.