Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to acquire further funding for the rebuilding of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The New Hospital Programme: plan for implementation was published on 20 January 2025 and sets out a credible, deliverable plan for the schemes in the New Hospital Programme (NHP). This plan will be delivered through five-year waves of investment and is backed by up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Further information on the plan for implementation is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome
As wave 3 schemes, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Royal Preston Hospital have been paused. No further funding will be available from the NHP until pre-construction activity begins from 2030. The NHP is committed to ensuring both schemes are fully resourced when this time comes. The standard process for confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.
An equality impact assessment was carried out for the review into the NHP and included assessing the extent to which service users might be impacted by these delivery proposals, with specific reference to the impact that these might have on relevant protected characteristics. This was laid in the House Library and published on 20 January 2025, and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward proposals to rebuild the Royal Lancaster Hospital from 2035-38; and what steps he is taking to prevent further delays to this.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The New Hospital Programme: plan for implementation was published on 20 January 2025 and sets out a credible, deliverable plan for the schemes in the New Hospital Programme (NHP). This plan will be delivered through five-year waves of investment and is backed by up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Further information on the plan for implementation is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome
As wave 3 schemes, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Royal Preston Hospital have been paused. No further funding will be available from the NHP until pre-construction activity begins from 2030. The NHP is committed to ensuring both schemes are fully resourced when this time comes. The standard process for confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.
An equality impact assessment was carried out for the review into the NHP and included assessing the extent to which service users might be impacted by these delivery proposals, with specific reference to the impact that these might have on relevant protected characteristics. This was laid in the House Library and published on 20 January 2025, and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department’s budget is for funding the Royal Preston Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary in 2026-27.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The New Hospital Programme: plan for implementation was published on 20 January 2025 and sets out a credible, deliverable plan for the schemes in the New Hospital Programme (NHP). This plan will be delivered through five-year waves of investment and is backed by up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Further information on the plan for implementation is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome
As wave 3 schemes, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Royal Preston Hospital have been paused. No further funding will be available from the NHP until pre-construction activity begins from 2030. The NHP is committed to ensuring both schemes are fully resourced when this time comes. The standard process for confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.
An equality impact assessment was carried out for the review into the NHP and included assessing the extent to which service users might be impacted by these delivery proposals, with specific reference to the impact that these might have on relevant protected characteristics. This was laid in the House Library and published on 20 January 2025, and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his plan is to allocate funding for the rebuilding of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The New Hospital Programme: plan for implementation was published on 20 January 2025 and sets out a credible, deliverable plan for the schemes in the New Hospital Programme (NHP). This plan will be delivered through five-year waves of investment and is backed by up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Further information on the plan for implementation is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome
As wave 3 schemes, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Royal Preston Hospital have been paused. No further funding will be available from the NHP until pre-construction activity begins from 2030. The NHP is committed to ensuring both schemes are fully resourced when this time comes. The standard process for confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.
An equality impact assessment was carried out for the review into the NHP and included assessing the extent to which service users might be impacted by these delivery proposals, with specific reference to the impact that these might have on relevant protected characteristics. This was laid in the House Library and published on 20 January 2025, and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to help reduce NHS waiting times in Cumbria.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tackling the waiting-list is a top priority for the Government. We have exceeded our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments. More than double that number, 5.2 million more appointments, have now been delivered in England.
On 6 January 2025, NHS England published the new Elective Reform Plan, which sets out a whole system approach to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029. This includes a focus on:
Cumbria is covered by two integrated care boards (ICBs). As of August 2025, 18-week referral to treatment performance for the NHS Lancashire And South Cumbria ICB was 60.7%, and was 70.2% for the NHS North East And North Cumbria ICB. As of October 2025, there are now two CDCs in Cumbria, the Workington CDC and the Crossland Day Hospital. These community diagnostic centres will support access to earlier diagnostic tests, benefiting millions of patients.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to reduce ward work in portacabins at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service trusts make decisions locally on their use of temporary facilities, in line with delivering clinical services.
Any temporary facility must meet the same Health Building Notice and Health Technical Memorandum safety, environmental, fire, clinical, and other standards as a permanent healthcare building.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the state of repair of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the management of their estate, National Health Service trusts regularly assess the physical condition of their estate. NHS England’s annual Estates Returns Information Collection collects data from trusts on the quality of their estate annually, including the projected cost of bringing all the buildings on each NHS site into acceptable condition, recorded as backlog maintenance. The latest published data on backlog maintenance, for 2024/25, is available at the following link:
Hospitals in the New Hospital Programme, including the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, continue to receive support for maintenance and repairs. In addition to operational capital, the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has been provided with £3.3 million from the 2025/26 Estates Safety Fund for works at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of (a) international approaches to national cancer plans and (b) previous UK cancer plans, in the context of his planned national cancer plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of development for the National Cancer Plan, the Department has engaged with international counterparts to consider their approaches to national cancer strategies. This includes engagement with Denmark to discuss the lessons learned from their cancer plans.
The Department has also considered previous UK cancer plans and submissions to the previous 10 Year Cancer Plan and Major Conditions Strategy call for evidence to inform the development of the upcoming National Cancer Plan.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on (a) the potential cost-effectiveness of expanding access to radiotherapy treatment and (b) other funding relating to radiotherapy cancer treatments.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There have not been any recent discussions relating to the cost-effectiveness and funding of radiotherapy. However, the Government remains committed to supporting the use of radiotherapy as a crucial cancer treatment. We have already invested £70 million in replacing outdated radiotherapy machines across the National Health Service with new, cutting-edge technology that will speed up treatment for thousands of patients.
Additionally, the Government will also continue to support the NHS to deliver a wide range of cancer treatment services, as we work towards our aim of diagnosing and treating cancer more quickly.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of cancer patients who will require radiotherapy as part of their treatment in each year to 2035.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of patients diagnosed with and receiving treatment for cancer is increasing. We expect that these numbers will continue to rise, and consequently that more patients will require radiotherapy as part of their treatment.
The most recently available data shows that between 2021/22 and 2022/23 the number of attendances of patients attending hospital to receive radiotherapy treatment increased from 1,532,846 to 1,635,373, an increase of 6.7%.