Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many buildings managed by his Department have been found to have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire.

The National Health Service has been surveying hospital sites to identify the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) since 2019. The table below shows the number of NHS sites found to have RAAC in the Fylde constituency and Lancashire:

Note: the three sites in Lancashire were the Blackpool Victoria Hospital, now eradicated, the Royal Blackburn Hospital, and the Blackburn Ambulance Station.

The Department has published a full list of sites with confirmed RAAC on GOV.UK website, at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-raac-in-hospitals-management-information

Once the presence of RAAC is confirmed at a hospital site, the trust joins NHS England’s national RAAC programme, which has delivered mitigation and eradication works across all hospital sites with confirmed RAAC to keep facilities safe and open, and which is working to remove RAAC fully from the NHS estate.

The Government is committed to removing RAAC from the NHS estate as a priority and will continue to support NHS England’s RAAC programme with £440 million in 2025/26.