Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the total spend on consultants for the New Hospitals Programme in (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2020-21.

The New Hospital Programme is a national programme that is responsible for the delivery of the Government’s commitment to build 40 new hospitals. The consultants the programme has engaged with have been specialists who have brought highly technical skills, support, and experience needed for a programme of this size and complexity. The specialist consultants have been utilised for the programme on a temporary and specific basis. We continually review the number of consultants being utilised by the New Hospital Programme, and expect to make significant savings using specialist consultants to develop standardised design across the whole New Hospital Programme.

Please see the total spend on consultants for the New Hospital Programme for financial years 2021/22 and 2020/21 in the following table: