Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 10 May 2018 to Question 139949, when work on the Midland Metropolitan Hospital is planned to restart.

The Government remains committed to the Midland Metropolitan Hospital project. Ministers across Government are determined to finish construction as quickly as possible in a way that secures best value for the tax payer. We are in active discussions with all relevant parties to restart the project as soon as possible.

The lenders that finance the private finance initiative company put forward a proposal to restart the project. That would have involved a further contribution of public capital. Ministers concluded that this proposal was not acceptable to the Government, for a number of reasons, and that only a contractual solution could be considered.