Oral Answers to Questions

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

Tuesday 21st December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

4. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the private finance initiative.

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

5. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the private finance initiative.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

In the spending review the Government abolished the private finance initiative credit system, which provided Departments with a ring-fenced budget that could be used only to support local authority PFI projects. The change levelled the playing field between PFI and other forms of procurement.

[Rehman Chishti]

What does the Chief Secretary think of the comments made by the former Paymaster General, who said that PFI contracts were far too generous and too expensive?

[Danny Alexander]

That has a striking comment, coming from a Minister who was in the Department responsible for those things, and it reflects the general attitude towards public money that was prevalent under the previous Administration. There is a great deal of work that we can do as a Government to ensure that in future PFI is used only where it is absolutely necessary, and that we get best value for public money. That is how we should approach these things.