Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that funding for radiotherapy cancer treatments addresses regional inequalities in access to (a) advanced radiotherapy techniques and (b) radiotherapy satellite centres; and if he will include an assessment the potential implications for his policies of such inequalities in the NHS 10 year plan.

NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for ensuring healthcare needs of local communities are met. These responsibilities include considering adequate healthcare provision, care, and wider support for local populations, including in remote and rural areas. This includes radiotherapy treatment. The Government will work to ensure that the best standard of healthcare is available no matter where people live.

Addressing healthcare inequity is a core focus of the 10-Year Health Plan, to ensure the National Health Service is there for anyone who needs it whenever they need it. We have established 11 working groups to take forward policy development that will feed into the plan. This includes working groups focused on how care should be designed and delivered to improve healthcare equity, alongside ensuring that access to healthcare services is effective and responsive.