To ask the Minister of Health, further to his recent announcement that £80 million will be ringfenced for waiting list and elective care capacity building activity during 2026-27, whether any of this funding (i) has been earmarked for diagnostic and screening services; and (ii) will be allocated more broadly across elective, diagnostic and screening capacity.

Building core Health and Social Care (HSC) capacity is paramount to address the current capacity and demand gap. While good progress has been made over the last 12 months, further investment is required to sustain these improvements.

Provision has been made within the £80m to increase elective capacity across a range of services including diagnostic imaging, cancer, paediatrics, stoke services and bowel screening. My department is working to finalise these investment plans and a detailed breakdown of the areas prioritised for investment will be shared publicly in due course.