Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment NHS England has made of the potential effect of three private proton therapy centres becoming operational in England in 2016 on University College Hospital London and the Christie Hospital Manchester's plans to build NHS proton therapy centres.

NHS England’s proton beam therapy (PBT) strategy is to deliver high quality PBT care within an integrated clinical environment using state of the art equipment for National Health Service patients. NHS England is committed to commissioning services from the planned Government-funded PBT facilities at University College Hospital London NHS Foundation Trust and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, and as such has not entered into commissioning discussions with any private sector PBT market entrants.