To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the part that clinical diagnostics play in (a) improving health care, (b) improving treatment outcomes and (c) reducing overall health care costs to the NHS; and if he will make it his policy to raise awareness of the role of diagnostics in health care delivery. [122341]

Clinical diagnostics is a key component of health maintenance and disease management. Accurate clinical diagnoses enable early intervention and appropriate choice of treatments helping to manage national health service costs. Clinical diagnostics underpins key principles in the NHS Plan and work is under way nationally to support improvement in this area.