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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Levitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that the NHS CO2 standard of heat insulation, specified in PFI tenders for new hospital buildings, is implemented in existing and future contracts. [143163] Mr. Denham: The National Health Service has a good track record in achieving environmental targets, and there are a number of initiatives under way to support the NHS in achieving greater energy efficiency. This is an important matter, and we do not propose to stand still. We are therefore taking the following programme of action: We will write to all NHS trusts setting new mandatory targets for overall energy use and will be providing guidance to the NHS on how to improve its environmental performance. We will make existing targets for capital schemes mandatory, which means that all output specifications for private finance initiative schemes must comply with those targets. We will include a new section on energy efficiency in the Business Case checklist, which the Department uses in assessing the quality and readiness of proposals for capital schemes. The current British Standard for heat insulation is under review, and I have asked that my officials review the current model engineering specification in the light of this. The revised capital investment manual will include a new section focusing on environmental issues. A joint NHS Estates/Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions research and development project is under way to produce a building research establishment environmental assessment model for hospitals.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

361 c317-8W; 143163

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Contracts Conservation Construction Hospitals Energy Insulation Private finance initiative Standards

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk