Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of rebuilding the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

The standard process confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the Programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive. The New Hospital Programme had confirmed £3.7 billion in funding up to the end of 2024/25.

Up to the end of 2023/24, the total amount received by Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust in funding for their new hospital scheme is more than £20 million. The breakdown of how much the trust received for their new hospital scheme is published annually as part of the Department’s Annual Reports and Accounts, with Public Dividend Capital to individual Trusts included in the Financial Assistance Report under section 40 of the National Health Service Act 2006. The 2022/23 report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023

The Trust is currently at Pre-Consultation Business Case stage for the Royal Berkshire Hospital and is at Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) stage 0.