Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the basis for the Department of Health and Social Care’s reported instruction in communications advice to NHS Trusts to describe new wings or units of existing hospitals as new hospitals.

The schemes named on 2 October are all hospitals which are in need of investment, but those needs are not all identical and vary across a number of factors. In determining which schemes to take forward and ensure that each hospital could benefit from the most effective and efficient solution for its local requirements, it was necessary to establish common criteria for what constitutes a new hospital. All schemes that are part of the programme are consistent with these criteria.