Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help the NHS (a) plan and purchase new surgical robotics systems and (b) ensure equitable patient access to those systems.

Surgical robots have been used by the National Health Service since 2004 and are available for a range of treatments. It is a matter for NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts to decide, within guidelines, what systems they will use for a given procedure, and the most appropriate way to treat any individual patient. The NHS will continue to evaluate new developments in technology, but any new system must prove its efficacy, safety and value over and above what is used currently.