Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to (a) plan no further capital developments using the Private Finance Initiative and (b) place no further NHS contracts with private health firms.

Major investments in new hospital buildings are, in general, undertaken by National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts, not by the Department.

In producing their business cases, those organisations choose their planned procurement and financing routes and they are expected to do so with due regard to value for money and affordability, given the specifics of the facility that they are seeking to have built.

HM Treasury is responsible for the policy on the use of ‘Private Finance 2’ (PF2), the successor to the Private Finance Initiative. Only one PF2 scheme is currently being taken forward in the NHS.

With regard to the commissioning of patient care, any decision about use of the private sector is for local NHS commissioners. We are clear that patients should be able to access the best possible treatments based on quality of care, not the type of provider.