NHS: Private Companies Debate
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Lord Flight
Main Page: Lord Flight (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Flight's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(11 years, 9 months ago)
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Earl Howe
My Lords, the answer to that question will need to wait until Monitor has reported to the Secretary of State, which it has not yet done. I know that it is considering a number of aspects of the fair playing field generally, and that may well be one of them. When I am in a position to answer that question, I will be happy to do so.
Lord Flight
My Lords, what will the Government’s policy be towards the term of contracts? One of the big problems with PFI has been that the contracts were too long, but it is quite difficult to combine getting both commitment to service and investment and prices updated.
Earl Howe
My noble friend is absolutely right. Various contracts have been criticised for being too long: PFI is perhaps a good example. Other types of contract have been criticised for being too short because they do not enable providers to invest on a sufficient timescale in order to be able confidently to bid for work. I have little doubt, once again, that this is an area that Monitor will look at and make recommendations upon.