Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) CT scanners, (b) MRI scanning machines and (c) linear accelerators for radiotherapy were owned by her Department in the financial year 2021-22; how many and what proportion of the (i) CT scanners, (ii) MRI scanning machines and (iii) linear accelerators for radiotherapy used in the NHS were (A) leased and (B) operated through managed equipment services contracts in the financial year 2021-22; what the average age of the (1) CT scanners, (2) MRI scanning machines and (3) linear accelerators for radiotherapy used in the NHS was in the financial year 2021-22; and with reference to the Answer of 13 July 2022 to Question 31135 on Medical Equipment: Standards, what recent progress integrated care systems have made eliminating the backlog of diagnostic equipment over 10 years old by 2024-25.

As part of the Government’s commitment to increase diagnostics services, £2.3 billion of funding was awarded to transform diagnostic services over three years. This funding is being used to increase the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services. As of January 2024, there are 150 CDCs currently operational that have delivered over six million additional tests since July 2021.