AQW 15826/22-27

Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim

Tabled Date: 27/09/2024
Answered On Date: 11/10/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail any steps his Department is taking to ensure that new healthcare facilities are designed and built with sustainable, environmentally friendly practices.

Answer:

Health capital projects utilise a number of tools and standards in their procurement and construction phases so that they are both designed and built with sustainable and environmentally friendly practices to minimise impact to the environment.

In the appointment of design teams, the design team submission is quality assessed against award criteria that includes their approach to sustainability.

The design team and design process are reviewed utilising the Achieving Excellence in Design Evaluation Toolkit (AEDET) to provide a quality assessment of design and the designers at the various design stages.

All capital construction projects greater than £2 million are required to be designed and constructed and assessed to the Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) . The aim is for all projects to reach an excellence rating where this is shown to be achievable and value for money.

Contractors delivering major capital projects also participate in the ‘Considerate Constructors Scheme’ which includes a category of ‘caring for the environment’ which is rated, monitored and scored.