Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2023 to Question 191385 on Liver Diseases: Screening, which 10 community diagnostic centres provide FibroScans; and whether she plans to increase the number of such centres that will provide transient elastography for earlier detection of liver disease in 2024.

There are currently plans for 12 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) to offer FibroScan testing, of which six are operational. A further six CDCs plan to offer this service by the end of March 2024.

The following CDCs are currently offering FibroScan testing:

- Bexhill CDC in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex;

- New QEII Hospital CDC in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire;

- St Helen’s CDC in St Helen’s, Merseyside;

- Woking CDC in Woking, Surrey;

- Hereford City CDC in Hereford; and

- Andover CDC in Andover, Hampshire.

The following CDCs plan to offer this service by the end of March 2024:

- Bolton CDC in Bolton, Lancashire;

- Ely CDC in Ely, Cambridgeshire;

- Wisbech CDC in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire;

- Gloucestershire Quayside CDC in Gloucester;

- Northampton CDC in Northampton; and

- Queen Mary’s Hospital Roehampton CDC in Roehampton, Surrey.

We do not hold information on how much of the £2.3 billion allocated for diagnostics in the Spending Review 2021 has been spent on expanding the FibroScan rollout in CDCs, as this information is not routinely collected.