Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve access to radiotherapy for cancer patients in the West Midlands.

The Department remains committed to ensuring that all patients have access to timely diagnosis and treatments, including those in the West Midlands.

Radiotherapy is vital in cancer care, and it remains a key priority for the Government to provide the highest quality of treatment available. We have invested £70 million of central funding into new radiotherapy treatment machines to replace older, less efficient machines. These newer machines will reduce treatment times, boost productivity, and allow more patients to be seen over the same period.

Responsibility for purchasing new machines sits at the local level. Local providers have been allocated £15 billion in operational capital for local priorities, and £5 billion to support a return to constitutional standards on waiting times. We expect local systems to use this capital to deliver further investment into new radiotherapy equipment, to meet local needs, including for patients in the West Midlands.

Through the National Cancer Plan, we are modernising cancer services, expanding the workforce and tackling inequalities in access, so that all patients receive high-quality care regardless of where they live.