Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to respond to the Sir Mike Richards 2020 review of services, which found that (1) 20 NHS trusts require a complete rebuild of their endoscopy facilities, and (2) 200 new endoscopy rooms are needed to meet rising patient needs.

The National Health Service is transforming diagnostics services in line with the recommendations from Sir Mike Richards’ Review: Diagnostics Recovery and Renewal, including rolling out at least 100 Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) by 2024/25. The Government has made £2.3 billion available to support this transformation over the next three years.

The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with Regions and local systems to determine how the funding will be divided across diagnostics services. The amount for improving endoscopy services specifically and how these services will be improved is still being finalised.

The funding is on top of the £325 million announced for this year, which is supporting the roll out of over 40 CDCs across England, many of which will provide additional endoscopy capacity.