Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS's 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance, published on 30 January 2025, what steps his Department is taking to include health infrastructure planning decisions in the scope of the commitment to streamline planning.

The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future. This means we need to see world class NHS infrastructure across the entire NHS estate. Beyond hospitals, we know we need the right infrastructure in the right place to deliver a true Neighbourhood Health Service and to ensure that patients receive the care they deserve.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government on how to extend our collective interactions in the planning process, from local plan making to negotiating developer contributions, through updates to national guidance. This is alongside our support for the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government’s efforts to streamline the planning process, by extensively feeding into the ways in which health infrastructure plans can facilitate this.