PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Hospitals: Construction (6 July 2023)

All schemes that are part of the New Hospital Programme will be subject to the necessary assurance processes, as per HM Treasury Green Book guidance. This will mean that the new hospitals will deliver improvements that meet the needs of staff and patients in these areas, taking into account local needs and specifications. The business case process will also ensure that all plans provide value for money and are deliverable.

To deliver the new hospitals, different schemes have been grouped into cohorts as part of the national programme. These represent a balance of progress for earlier schemes while enabling standardisation in design and utilisation of economies of scale across schemes in later cohorts. However, we have always been clear that this would be subject to ongoing review as the programme progresses. For example, we are now prioritising the rebuild of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete hospitals due to their urgent need of repair and the risk they pose to patient and staff safety.