Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to replace aging radiotherapy treatment machines to enable cancer patients to benefit from technological advances in equipment; and what is their timetable for any such plans.

As part of the 2020 Spending Review, £32 million was made available to support the replacement of 17 linear accelerators (LINACs) over 10 years old, which will be delivered by 31 March 2022. This is in addition to £160 million invested from 2016 to 2018 which enabled the replacement or upgrade of over 80 LINACs.

As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, changes will be made to the current radiotherapy payment system to incentivise the adoption of evidence-based best practice care and enable the appropriate replacement of equipment.