NHS: Private Companies

Lord Naseby Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Naseby]

My noble friend mentioned tariffs. Will it be a tariff across the whole of England or will it reflect the differing costs, particularly in overheads, of, say, an operation in London and an operation further north?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, there are tariffs that are nationally set and others that may be locally set, but there is scope to vary even the national tariffs if there is a good reason to do so on the grounds of local variation in costs. There is some flexibility in the system, but the main basis of the policy, as I stressed earlier, is that, where competition occurs, it should be on the basis of quality and not price.