Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans in the 2019 spending review to allocate funding to provide for the work required on NHS critical infrastructure; and if he will make a statement.

The Spending Review, which is expected to be later this year, will set future years capital budgets. This will consider the case and options for capital investment in the National Health Service, including in supporting and maintaining critical infrastructure in the NHS.

The majority of NHS capital assets are owned by individual NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts, who in aggregate make capital investments of around £3 billion annually. NHS planning guidance for 2019-20 has been clear that local organisations should set out how their proposed capital investments are consistent with their clinical strategies and how they demonstrate the delivery of safe, productive services that are affordable to the organisation.