Scrutiny proposes amendments to the Our Hospital Project Budget
21 September 2021
The Future Hospital Review Panel has lodged an amendment to P.80/2021 Our Hospital – Budget, Financing and Land Assembly. If adopted this would reduce the maximum expenditure cap for Our Hospital to project completion from £804.5 million to £550 million. The Panel has also proposed changing the proposed level of borrowing, reducing the figure from £756 million to a maximum of £400 million with the addition that alternative government funding provides the remainder.
The Future Hospital Review Panel Chair, Senator Kristina Moore, said:
"The Panel's early findings in its review of the Outline Business Case of the Our Hospital Project have identified that it does not provide the evidence needed to justify the scale of the project. In addition, when asking members of the public if they believed the budget of £804 million was appropriate, the answer was no.
"With the lack of justification and wider reluctance to commit the people of Jersey to such a large budget, the Panel has lodged this amendment in order to allow the States Assembly to impose budgetary restraint and calls on the project to be revisited to fit a smaller budget.
"Following the proposed reduction in project budget the Panel has agreed that a reduction in borrowing is sensible. The Panel is of the opinion that leveraging wider States of Jersey income will also negate the need to fully fund the project by committing to a potential bond and the associated costs."
