Examination of Witnesses (Question Numbers
60-63)
RT HON
ANDREW LANSLEY
CBE MP
20 JULY 2010
Q60 Mr Sharma: Will the Government
continue to use PFI as a means of capital investment or will it
now consider suspending PFI projects which it had previously approved?
Mr Lansley: I have no proposals
at the moment to stop PFI as a route to capital investment. If
I may say it is probably more for my colleagues in the Treasury
to lead on the question of the structure of capital investment
projects overall and how public and private partnerships are best
structured for this purpose. I might say in the NHS context I
think there are already some innovations. I was with the Royal
Liverpool and Broadgreen Trust two or three weeks ago and we have
given them the approval to proceed with their PFI project. I could
not explain in detail how they are structuring it but they are
not structuring it with the same long-term hard and soft maintenance
requirements as some PFIs in the past. To that extent I think
they are beginning to adapt to a public-private partnership which
better delivers for them. As we move to foundation trusts across
the NHS I hope they will be able to use the freedoms we give them
to structure their capital assets in the ways that make sense
better for them.
Q61 Mr Sharma: You partly answered
this question earlier on but I would like a little bit more clarification.
The funding that local authorities receive for providing social
care is ring-fenced. Are you hoping to increase that amount?
Mr Lansley: The Coalition Programme
is very clear, as we were before and during the election, that
the resources for the NHS will increase each year in real terms.
I am afraid that does not extend to the social care budget as
a whole.
Q62 Mr Sharma: In the local authorities?
Mr Lansley: As deployed through
local authorities.
Q63 Mr Sharma: So are you leaving
the local authorities to decide how much they spend on their services?
Mr Lansley: As part of the Spending
Review of local government spending social care budgets as a component
of the overall resource settlement to local authorities will be
a part of that negotiation
Chair: If I may suggest, as the Secretary
of State rightly says, we are not going to do credit to the public
expenditure round in the time available, but I thought it was
an interesting question that Mr Sharma wanted to ask you. Secretary
of State, thank you very much for being with us for an hour and
56 minutes and covering a very wide range of responsibilities.
Thank you very much for your good humour and clarity.
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