Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 2026 Budget, what representations she has made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on her Department's capital allocation.

The Department’s contribution to the Defence Investment Plan will avoid any impact on the delivery of frontline NHS services, patient safety, investment in technology, or the New Hospital Programme (NHP). We remain fully committed to delivering all 46 hospitals in the NHP, including the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete replacement hospitals, and no projects within the programme will be delayed as a result of the Budget announcements.

Large capital programmes are designed to be flexible because projects develop at different speeds and funding needs change over time. That flexibility means that we can redeploy some funding from NHS capital projects to the Defence Investment Plan without affecting their overall delivery. The NHS continues to benefit from record levels of capital investment, and we are reforming how these projects are delivered by cutting red tape, speeding up approvals and giving local leaders more freedom to initiate their own plans.