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 reduce the number of men dying as a result of prostate cancer.

In April 2018, the Government announced £75 million over five years for prostate cancer research, which will focus on improving early diagnosis and survival rates as well as exploring options for different treatments for men affected by the disease. Funding will be invested through the National Institute for Health Research to support a wide range of research.

NHS England has invested £130 million to fund the modernisation of radiotherapy across England. This has ensured that older linear accelerators (LINACs - radiotherapy machines) being used by hospitals are being upgraded or replaced, giving cancer patients access to the latest leading edge technology regardless of where they live. Over 80 machines have been replaced or upgraded.

In September 2019, the Government committed to funding £200 million for new equipment to drive earlier diagnosis of cancer and improve survival. More than 300 diagnostic machines will be installed across the country from this year, replacing outdated MRI machines and CT scans with cutting edge technology. The new machines will be AI-enabled to keep pace with future advances in technology, which allow tasks now done by humans to be done by computer.