Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 4 March (HL14724), whether NHS England has provided guidance to integrated care boards in the current planning round to include robotic assisted surgery adoption trajectories in their operational plans; what monitoring arrangements are in place to assess uptake and implementation by NHS trusts of the guidance Implementation of robotic assisted surgery in England, published in July 2025; and what is meant by "regional alliances" in the context of robotic assisted surgery expansion.

The Department and NHS England are working with senior leaders across the health system, including integrated care boards (ICBs), to make sure that procurement of surgical robotic platforms supports innovation, transparency and long-term value.

No guidance has been provided to ICBs at this stage, but equity of access remains a key consideration. The Department and NHS England are working with regional partners to understand how robotics can be deployed in a way that supports equity, productivity and population need. Regional alliances refer to Cancer Alliances, which look at the care and support patients should expect to receive from diagnosis to follow-up across their whole area, so they can address variation and implement best practice. NHS England provides Cancer Alliances with funding for cancer to assist in their work.

Decisions on the procurement of robotic-assisted surgery are made locally by National Health Service trusts and ICBs, in line with local need and national guidance. No specific targets or monitoring arrangements have been set in relation to uptake or implementation of the July 2025 Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) guidance. However, a baseline assessment is being undertaken to understand the current provision of robotic assisted surgery and the increase in activity needed to begin to close the gaps. NHS England has funding in place for a national robotic surgery registry, which, once established will provide near real-time data on this aspect.