Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an estimate of the cost to the NHS of (a) unused and (b) underused clinical (i) buildings and (ii) rooms.

No assessment has been made of the potential merits of adopting intelligent booking systems to maximise the utilisation of the National Health Service’s property estate. NHS trusts decide locally how best to manage their estate.

Data for the occupancy and utilisation rates of clinical rooms in the NHS estate for the latest period, from 2023 to 2024, published in December 2024, is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/estates-returns-information-collection/summary-page-and-dataset-for-eric-2023-24

No estimate has been made of the cost to the NHS of unused and underused clinical buildings and rooms.