19 October 2018

The Department of Health, under the watch of Jeremy Hunt, removed oversight of Carillion's health construction projects away from an independent watchdog set up to monitor the stability of expensive public projects.

This is according to the National Audit Office (NAO), which has released a report stating that the government took responsibility for managing Carillion projects, including the unfinished Midland Metropolitan and Royal Liverpool University hospitals, in 2015.

Up until that point, the projects were being overseen by the Major Projects Authority (MPA), which Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told the Guardian "was specifically set up to provide assurance that major projects of this nature were being properly managed".

"It could be construed as reckless to remove these projects from the MPA ... we need clarity on who was responsible for making and concurring in this decision," he added.

A government spokesperson clarified that all hospital projects were removed from the oversight of the MPA to the Department for Health.

The NAO report stated that Hunt's department had "lobbied successfully" to remove them from the portfolio of the independent watchdog.