Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of private finance initiatives on NHS services in Surrey Heath constituency.

Operational health private finance initiatives (PFI) contracts are held by individual trusts. The last PFI contract was signed in 2015.

As announced at the Autumn Budget, the Department is supporting the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority to develop the new Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for neighbourhood health centres (NHCs). The new NHC PPP model will build on lessons from the past, including the National Audit Office’s 2025 report on private finance and other models currently in use. We are not bringing back PFI.

The new PPP model is about delivering the infrastructure to support the delivery of neighbourhood services, and we are not using the private sector to deliver the National Health Service clinical services that will be delivered from these centres.

The need for NHCs will be locally driven and will recognise what already exists and where additional provision or a new combination of services is needed. Any new PPP model will need to demonstrate value for money and affordability.