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 promote NHS innovation in robotics.

Robotics is one of the Department’s 10-Year Health Plan’s five "big bets” and by supporting the innovation pipeline from research through to adoption we aim to stimulate greater innovation and more rapid delivery of these technologies for improved patient outcomes and an improved health system.

To support adoption, our 10-Year Health Plan commits to expand surgical robot adoption over the next decade, support National Health Service trusts to increase robotic process automation, and scale the use of robots in pharmacy. We have also committed to establishing national registries for robotic surgery data from 2029 and to developing telesurgery networks. Earlier this year, NHS England published the first national guidance for the implementation of robotic assisted surgery (RAS) in the NHS, offering guidance on procurement, commissioning, implementation, training, and evaluation. A national steering committee is already in place to support the adoption of RAS, ensure safe implementation, and to oversee the training requirements for surgeons and surgical teams. The NHS aims to increase the number of robotic-assisted procedures to 500,000 by 2035, up from 70,000 in 2023/24.

The Department supports innovation in NHS robotics research by funding the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and its NIHR HealthTech Research Centre (HRC) in Devices, Digital and Robotics, which is one of fourteen HRCs. This centre supports safe, effective, and efficient translation of new healthcare technologies, such as robotics, into routine care for NHS patients and follow-on social care.