Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what building refurbishments have been carried out by his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies since May 2010; what the cost was of each such refurbishment by category of expenditure; what building refurbishments are planned by his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies; and what the estimated cost of each such refurbishment is.

As part of the transition to the new Health and Social Care system a number of new organisations were established as part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. This has required the Department to improve and update its buildings to accommodate these new organisations within its own buildings thus maximising efficiency and effectiveness without purchasing expensive new buildings. We have also taken the opportunity to deliver a number of improvements to our lighting, heating and cooling systems which will make our buildings more energy efficient and help towards delivering our Greener Government targets.

In 2009-10 the total cost of the estate was £183,132,952 this was reduced to £121,697,625 in 2012-13. We have also reduced our space occupancy from 14.2 square metres (sqm) per full time equivalent (FTE) to 11.6 sqm per FTE in 2012-13 and are on target to reduce this to below 10 sqm per FTE during 2015-16.

Expenditure on office refurbishment undertaken by the Department and its non-departmental public bodies since May 2010 is attached. Refurbishment costs relate to the general fit out, improvement and provision of furniture and equipment and excludes building repair and maintenance. It is not possible to provide a more detailed background of each item by category of expenditure without incurring disproportionate costs. Partial information for non-departmental public bodies can only be provided as some of this data is not available.

Estimated expenditure on Building refurbishments that are planned by the Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies is attached.