Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans exist for replacing outdated scanning machines as part of the programme for doubling capacity.

The Government is committed to investing in replacing outdated scanners. The 2025 Spending Review confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment over five years across new diagnostic, elective, and urgent care capacity. This funding will deliver new community diagnostic centres to increase system capacity in diagnostic services, new scanners in acute hospital settings, as well as replacement of the oldest computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

Aged scanner replacement is one of the areas the Government is investing in over the next four years. Many National Health Service trusts have submitted schemes to NHS England for consideration to replace CT, MRI, and non-obstetric ultrasound scanners as well as other types of diagnostic equipment. NHS England’s criteria for approval considers the age of the current scanners, the impact on diagnostics, Referral to Treatment, and cancer performance, benefits of replacement, including productivity gain, and value for money.

The Government is also supporting investment in artificial intelligence acceleration software for MRI machines which speeds up scanner acquisition time without degradation of image quality.