Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what NHS facilities are available for proton beam treatment for cancer in the UK; where the facilities are located; and when each became operational.

In 2012, the Government provided £250 million to build two high energy proton beam therapy (PBT) facilities at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester and University College London Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Foundation Trust in London. Work has already started and is proceeding as quickly and safely as possible, with the first facility due to become operational in 2018.

NHS England is committed to continuing the Proton Beam Therapy Overseas Programme until the centres being built at The Christie and UCLH are in a position to undertake the treatment currently being commissioned from overseas providers.