Scottish ministers accused of 'cover-up' over plans for £2.1bn Monklands replacement

The Scottish Government has been accused of a “cover-up” following reports that ministers knew plans for a £2.1bn replacement Monklands hospital were too expensive prior to the Holyrood election.

The ageing NHS Lanarkshire site was due to be replaced with the University Hospital Monklands at Wester Moffat, after planning permission was granted earlier this year.

But in June, health secretary Angela Constance said she couldn’t approve the plans in their current form due to the “current financial landscape”.

Constance said the decision to shutter the project “had not been taken lightly”, and added the Scottish Government was “committed to building a new hospital at Monklands”.

The announcement, made as MSPs were about to leave for summer recess, provoked outrage amid claims from Scottish Labour that the SNP had ditched manifesto promises.

However, the Scottish Mail On Sunday has reported that ministers, including the previous health secretary Neil Gray, were warned about a number of issues with the project in March – two months before the Scottish elections.

NHS Scotland Assure, which monitors building projects in the health sector, reportedly told ministers they would “not recommend immediate progression to construction”.

The Conservatives claim the First Minister and Gray “disgracefully lied to voters” over the issue, which Meghan Gallacher MSP branded “a cover-up”.

She said: “These bombshell revelations will be met with fury from patients across Lanarkshire.

“This is concrete proof that John Swinney and Neil Gray disgracefully lied to voters and hid the truth from them in a shameful attempt to keep voters on side with their party during an election period.

“It is no coincidence that Gray was then removed from his role as health secretary to spare him the humiliation of having to admit a new hospital wouldn’t be built in his constituency after all.”

She continued: “Their cover-up on what was really happening with a new Monklands hospital goes to the very top and Neil Gray as the local MSP must urgently come clean as to why he kept this information hidden from voters prior to May’s election.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Scottish ministers are fully committed to building a new Monklands Hospital on the Wester Moffat site.

“A comprehensive redesign of the Monklands replacement programme is well under way, with refreshed plans to be presented to ministers for decision in 2027, so that construction can begin as soon as possible.

“As ministers have set out to parliament, the Scottish Government received the full business case for the Monklands replacement project from NHS Lanarkshire on December 12 2025.

“It is always the case that projects of this scale take time to fully consider and take through the appropriate internal governance assurance processes, as the public would expect when such significant amounts of public money are involved.

“In March, the project was still going through various internal assessments, and the business case was not ready to proceed for decision before the Scottish Government entered the pre-election period.”

The spokesperson said that ministers decided to “reset” the project after assessing the business case when the new government was formed after the election.