Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with companies providing radioisotopes for cancer screening and treatment regarding the future security of supplies and options for manufacturing those isotopes in the UK; and what was the outcome of those discussions.

The Department regularly engages with suppliers, specialist clinicians, the British Nuclear Medicine Society, industry, and the UK Radiopharmacy Group to assist in the management of supply issues for medical radioisotopes, including those used for cancer screening and treatments. The Department also works with the National Health Service and other parts of the Government to better understand future needs for medical radioisotopes.

There is no current reactor-based production of medical radioisotopes in the United Kingdom. There is an existing network of cyclotrons for the close to hospital manufacture of specific medical radioisotopes in the UK, and these are directly contracted by the NHS on a trust level.