PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Hospitals: Construction (30 September 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 293621 on hospitals: construction, whether the business cases should be supported by the relevant sustainability and transformation partnership.

Asked by:
Karin Smyth (Labour)

Funding in relation to the 40 hospital building projects and other capital schemes includes provision for Value Added Tax (VAT) under current VAT rules and recovery will be assessed for each scheme in line with current guidelines. Our funding allocation for the Health Infrastructure Plan has been built up by overall cost estimates of the schemes inclusive of VAT, however the amount of VAT that will be payable will be determined once schemes have been fully scoped.

National Health Service organisations undertaking investment schemes are required to produce business cases to support their decisions. Business cases are prepared by the NHS. The Department does not routinely publish business cases and the decision to publish the outline or full business cases would be for the lead NHS organisation.

Business cases will be supported by a range of stakeholders including sustainability and transformation partnerships and NHS regional teams. We have announced changes to the process for approving business cases, including looking at offering more assistance for providers in developing their business cases, and releasing some funding earlier and streamlining the approvals process for submitted cases.

Answered by:
Edward Argar (Conservative)
8 October 2020