§ Lord Walton of Detchantasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in their opinion, the decision to impose a uniform style of wayfinding and signing systems throughout the National Health Service, as recommended by National Health Service Estates in 1999 and made mandatory in Identity and Stationery Guidelines (February 2000), represents value for money. [HL3816]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)National Health Service organisations are not required to change any existing signage to the new style unless that signage is coming up for renewal. The new style is being phased in, and is not being imposed as a mandatory change for design reasons only.
We anticipate that a single design style will generate savings as: design costs for signage are only incurred once rather than replicated by individual NHS organisations embarking on signage projects; and it offers the opportunity to benefit from economies of scale by negotiation of national contracts for signage production.