Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answers of 22 January 2025 to Questions 24638, 24639 and 24640 on Radiotherapy: Medical Equipment, whether the criteria developed by NHS England for funding exclude (a) replacing radiotherapy machines purchased by charities for use by the NHS and (b) the costs of artificial intelligence products; and what the three technical specification options are for linear accelerators from which providers need to choose.

The criteria developed by NHS England excludes the replacement of radiotherapy machines purchased by charities. These machines fall outside the scope of National Health Service capital replacement funding, as they are not originally procured through NHS-funded budgets.

The costs of artificial intelligence products are not typically covered under NHS capital radiotherapy equipment replacement programmes.