Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral statement of 25 May 2023, Official Report, column 477, when his Department will confirm how much funding will be provided for the rebuilding of Whipps Cross Hospital; and when the funding will be available to Barts Health NHS Trust.

We are committed to delivering the Whipps Cross New Hospital Programme scheme by 2030 and we are working with all Trusts to progress their new hospital builds with the certainty of the Programme now expected to be backed by over £20 billion. All schemes in the Programme, including Barts Health NHS Trust, have now received the details of of individual indicative funding envelopes to work towards in the progression of their schemes.

The disclosure of individual funding allocations is commercially sensitive information and could undermine future negotiating positions for the scheme, and should therefore not be released into the public domain. As per usual process, the availability of the funding for the full scheme is subject to the Final Business Case being reviewed and agreed.

Up to the end of financial year 2022/2023, Barts Health NHS Trust has received £18.9m to support the development of the business case as well as a range of preparatory activity to prepare the site ahead of main construction, such as demolition works.