Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an estimate of the (a) capital cost of doubling the number of MRI and CT scanners and (b) running costs of incentives to work additional hours.

The Department is working with NHS England to cost a range of investments needed to return the National Health Service to meeting the elective and cancer waiting time standards, including doubling magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.

The use of out of hours and weekend capacity remains at the discretion and autonomy of individual providers and systems, to choose the approach most suitable for their local context, where it is a cost-effective and sustainable means of delivery.