Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care during the debate on New Hospitals of 25 May 2023, Official Report, column 477, whether a further assessment (a) of the end date of safe operation of the seven most RAAC-affected hospitals been conducted and (b) will be required before construction of new hospitals can begin.

Following the General Election in July 2024, the Government inherited a programme to deliver new hospitals that was unfunded beyond March 2025 and was repeatedly delayed. We now have a plan to deliver the New Hospital Programme which is realistic and affordable.

My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, commissioned a comprehensive report into the seven reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) schemes being delivered through the New Hospital Programme, as the last report was undertaken in autumn 2022 and covered the five hospitals not at the time within the New Hospital Programme.

Part of the objectives of this report is to form an assessment of RAAC condition and other structural elements, backlog maintenance risks, as well as planned and current mitigations, and the remaining expected life of affected sites. The site-by-site report on RAAC hospitals will help inform individual development plans, which continue to progress at pace. We will expedite the delivery of schemes to replace hospitals built wholly or primarily from RAAC by focussing on the most affected buildings and services first.