ALMOST £80 million – 10% of the Budget-allocated funds to deliver the government’s New Healthcare Facilities Programme – has been spent without main construction works starting on Jersey’s new acute hospital.
As of the end of last year, the programme – which commenced in 2023 – had recorded expenditure totalling just over £79 million, Treasury Minister Alan Maclean revealed in response to a written question from St Clement Deputy Karen Wilson.
Delivery of the NHFP plans was backed with a £710 million allocation in the 2025 to 2028 Budget, which was maintained in the 2026 to 2029 Budget.
It comes after a total of £83.8m was spent on the previous Our Hospital project between its inception in 2019 and its termination in 2022.
The price tag includes the cost of delivering an acute facility at Overdale and moving ahead with other aspects of the programme, including “meaningful progress” on ambulatory facilities at Kensington Place and a ‘Health Village’ in St Saviour.
The programme recorded spending of £38.3 million in 2023, £20.2 million in 2024 and £20.7 million last year (see graph pictured).
The largest chunk of the total £79.2 million expenditure figure was attributed to design team and advisor fees (£29.3 million), though Senator Maclean noted that this also encompassed procurement costs.
The “all other” cost category was the second largest at £25.4 million, with the minister explaining that the figure included site acquisition (£17.6m in 2023 and £0.9m in 2024) and associated costs.
There were also construction related costs totalling £14.3 million, as well as project management office and cost planning amounting to £8.1 million, legal and regulatory costs (£1.4 million) and “project direct costs” (£0.7 million).
“Spade in the ground” works, including site clearance, electricity diversions and other development activities began at Overdale last year in preperation for the main construction works.
Deputy Wilson, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee and is a former Health Minister, also asked Health Minister Tom Binet about the assurances he received prior to signing the hospital build contract in June, just days before the election.
Her question follows controversy over the finalising of the multi-million-pound deal with Bouygues UK after it emerged at the last minute that there was some due-diligence work that had needed completing.
Reiterating the explanation he had given in a statement earlier this month, Senator Binet said: “An additional mechanism was agreed with the contractor to address this position.”
He continued: “This took the form of an agreement that provided the government with an ability to not proceed with the contract during a defined period whilst the additional assurance was completed, should that work identify any adverse and material matters.
“This approach enabled the contract to be signed whilst preserving appropriate safeguards and allowing the further assurance activity to continue.”
The minister also said that the Council of Ministers had met in April, May and June specifically to discuss the contract with Bouygues UK and consider “relevant governance and assurance matters”. Senator Binet said that these meeting were “supplemented and preceded by ongoing engagement with relevant ministers and senior officers” and followed a Scrutiny process last year carried out by the Hospital Review Panel.
“Accordingly, the signing of the main works delivery partner contract should be viewed as the culmination of several years of assurance, scrutiny and development activity undertaken by the NHFP (and the three previous projects before it),” he said. “The decision made has reflected advice from a wide range of professional, clinical, ministerial and governance stakeholders and was reached within a framework that had provided ongoing review and challenge throughout the life of the programme.”
Senator Binet added that this additional work was supervised by Treasury officials and included third party assurance, with the checks confirming that it was “appropriate” for the first NHFP phase to proceed.
