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New Hospital Programme

Status: Closed Opened: 20 Jul 2023 Closed: 8 Mar 2024 1 recommendation 41 conclusions 1 report

The New Hospital Programme was set up in 2020 to build 40 new hospitals in England by 2030. It has £3.7 billion in capital funding for this for up to March 2025, with more to be provided for the following five years. The Programme is also intended to transform how NHS healthcare infrastructure is built, …

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Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
First Report - The New Hospital Programme HC 77 17 Nov 2023 42 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

3 items
9 Conclusion First Report - The New Hospital Program… Deferred

DHSC delayed in creating standardised hospital design and approval processes.

DHSC claims that its plans to standardise approvals processes and that hospital design will reduce the time taken to build a hospital from as much as 11 years to about six. We asked whether there was a case for rebuilding some hospitals using traditional methods so that more work could …

Government response. The government states it is examining the possibility of using existing design and contracting approaches for a small number of schemes to accelerate delivery, with final decisions on this to be made by summer 2024.
HM Treasury
13 Conclusion First Report - The New Hospital Program… Deferred

Insisting on unproven Hospital 2.0 designs for urgent RAAC hospital rebuilds by 2030 is questionable.

Among DHSC’s other commitments, the need to rebuild the seven RAAC hospitals by 2030 is particularly pressing. RAAC hospitals are costing taxpayers a lot of money as remedial measures are taken to keep them safe and open.24 In this context, insisting on using Hospital 2.0 designs for all seven schemes …

Government response. The government is examining the possibility of progressing a small number of schemes, including RAAC hospitals, using traditional design and contracting methods, with decisions expected by summer 2024, while also intending to test Hospital 2.0 within RAAC schemes.
HM Treasury
24 Conclusion First Report - The New Hospital Program… Deferred

Future funding for RAAC remediation beyond 2024-25 remains uncertain despite 2030 eradication goal.

NHS England also provided us with an update on its progress in dealing with known RAAC buildings. At the time we took evidence in September, it told us that there were projects to remove RAAC from the then 24 sites where it had a full understanding of the issues. It …

Government response. The government, despite stating 'recommendation implemented', confirms that funding needs for RAAC mitigation and eradication beyond 2024-25 will inform bids at subsequent Spending Reviews, thus deferring a definitive commitment. It also commits to writing to the Committee with an assessment …
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
7 Sep 2023 Amanda Pritchard · NHS England, Julian Kelly · NHS England, Natalie Forrest · Department of Health and Social Care, Professor Sir Stephen Powis · NHS England, Shona Dunn · Home Office View ↗

Correspondence

2 letters
DateDirectionTitle
26 Feb 2024 — Correspondence from Shona Dunn, Second Permanent Secretary, Department of Healt…
16 Oct 2023 — Correspondence from Shona Dunn, Second Permanent Secretary, Department for Heal…