§ Mr. Wardasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will estimate the average time that elapses between the decision to design a new district general hospital and the issuing of tenders for the construction works.
§ Mr. MoyleAs I explained in my reply of 12th January 1977—[Vol. 923, c.522–3.]—to the right hon. Member for Wanstead and Woodford (Mr. Jenkin) district general hospitals have usually been built in phases, the individual schemes ranging in content and size, and an estimate of the kind requested cannot be made. But for a phase of hospital 497W development costing about £7 million the interval between approval in principle and the issue of tenders would normally lie between three and four years. I would expect to see a shortening of this time by at least a year when use can be made of the nucleus hospital standardised design being developed by my Department.