Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been allocated to improving access to (a) intensity-modulated radiation therapy, (b) image-guided radiation therapy and (c) stereotactic radiotherapy in (i) 2014-15 and (ii) 2015-16.

NHS England is committed to increasing access to treatments and techniques of proven clinical benefit. There are no specific financial figures for each element as the expenditure is in the Area Team budgets.

The Prime Minister set an ambitious challenge to the National Health Service to ensure that a minimum of 24% of patients who required radical radiotherapy were able to access inverse planned Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) from April 2013. This ambition was achieved in May 2014. The success of this planned expansion of access is demonstrated in the increase in the number IMRT episodes, which have risen from just over 8,500 per year in 2012-13 to a projected figure of over 25,000 for 2014-15.

NHS England launched a 12 week consultation on proposed changes to the shape of Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Stereotactic Radiotherapy services across the country on 3 November 2014, which will run until 26 January 2015. Following this consultation, and once a decision has been made by NHS England about the future configuration of services; NHS England will launch a procurement exercise to ensure the right level of service is accessible to patients, regardless of where they live.