Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any subsequent legal agreements have been reached to change the original (a) obligations and (b) rights applying to the West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust as set out in the June 2013 agreement for the Watford Health Campus Partnership LLP.

National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts own their own land and buildings and are responsible for the sale or disposal of identified assets. Trusts work with integrated care boards, including the local authority and NHS England, on planning and optimising their estate.

The NHS has advised that the arrangement between West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Watford Borough Council and Kier was signed in 2013 and has a termination date of 2033 unless otherwise agreed by the parties. The housing regeneration is ongoing, and the hospital redevelopment is now part of the New Hospital Programme.

The Trust will make contributions to infrastructure costs as the work progresses and details of these will be made public in the normal way. To date, a £7 million contribution has been made by the Trust to the development of Thomas Sawyer Way, an access road which has an ambulance-only section, as well as access for staff, patients, and visitors to the new multi-storey car park. There have been no subsequent legal agreements which have changed either the original obligations or the rights applying to the West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.