Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding they have provided to the NHS for the 2020–21 financial year for tackling the £6.5 billion backlog in building maintenance.

Part of National Health Service capital expenditure by NHS organisations is self-financed and used to address their operational capital requirements, including backlog maintenance rather than through funding that has been centrally allocated. The extent of spend on backlog is dependent on local operational planning which is currently underway.

Additionally, some backlog maintenance will be tackled through the larger transformational capital programmes by replacement of old run-down estate with new facilities. Since 2017, the Government has announced over 170 Sustainability and Transformation Plan capital schemes amounting to around £3.3 billion, including the 20 hospital upgrades announced in August 2019. In addition, as part of the Health Infrastructure Plan launched in September 2019, the Government announced £2.8 billion funding to back its commitment to build 40 new hospitals. However, while these programmes will often address significant backlog maintenance the related funding element is not separately identified.