Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much (a) their Department and (b) its arm’s length bodies have spent on (i) installing electric vehicle charging facilities and (ii) purchasing electric vehicles since 4 July 2024; and what estimate their Department has made of the difference in capital cost between (A) the electric vehicles purchased by their Department and (B) comparable (1) petrol and (2) diesel models.

Since 4 July 2024 neither the Department nor its arm’s length bodies have centrally purchased electric vehicles for their owned fleet. There has been no departmental investment in charging facilities for the central Government estate in this period, though arm’s length bodies have spent £100,000 on such assets.

With regard to National Health Service budgets and estate, the Department has not allocated any national programme capital to the NHS for investment in electric vehicles or charging infrastructure. However, in line with the ambitions of the NHS’s Net Zero Travel and Transport Strategy, NHS trusts continue to use their operational capital allocations for investment in electric vehicles, including ambulances, where this aligns with local priorities. This spend data is held locally.

The Department is also working with NHS England and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles to support the rollout of charging infrastructure across the NHS estate through the £8 million NHS Chargepoint Accelerator Scheme, which is funded by the Department for Transport.

The Department has not made an estimate of the difference in capital cost between electric vehicles and comparable petrol or diesel models. However, the NHS Travel and Transport Strategy has previously noted that transitioning to zero-emission vehicles in the NHS could deliver operational savings of £59 million per year through reduced fuel and maintenance costs.