Community Diagnostic Centres
(asked on 21st November 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many community diagnostic centres were open at the end of (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24, (c) 2024-25, and are expected to be at the end of (d) 2025-26.
The following table sets out the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) which had started delivering activity, namely having gone live, and which were fully operational, delivering all modalities proposed in their approved business cases, from permanent facilities, from 2022/23 to 2024/25:
Financial year end | Number of CDCs delivering CDC activity. | Fully operational (delivering all planned tests from permanent facilities and location) |
2022/23 | 104 | 10 |
2023/24 | 163 | 54 |
2024/25 | 170 | 101 |
2025/26 (including planned numbers) | 170 | 128 (current number based on delivery reporting November 2025) 154 (expected year end point based on latest delivery plans) |
Source: NHS England
Notes:
- The table includes CDCs operating from temporary capacity while the permanent CDC build is completed.
- For 2025/26, the numbers include CDC sites which are anticipated to be fully operational by the end of March 2026 based on current delivery plans.
The Elective Reform Plan sets out that the Government will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding several existing CDCs and building up to five new CDCs. The locations of both new and expanded CDC schemes will be confirmed in due course. This is funded as part of £600 million of capital investment for diagnostics in 2025/26, which my rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, set out in her June 2025 statement.
The plan also commits to opening more CDCs 12 hours per day, seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital diagnostic tests around busy working lives. Upon entering office in July 2024, 63 CDCs were offering at least one diagnostic service out of hours, available to patients 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
The latest position at the end of November 2025 is that 101 CDCs are offering at least one service to this standard, an increase of 38 from July 2024. By the end of March 2026, this number is currently planned to increase to 116.