Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the level of profit made by private finance agencies on private finance initiative contracts with schools.

Where contract holders want to make changes to contracts, including changes to achieve savings, the Department expects that contract holders should work with the schools affected if there could be any impact on services. Where schools would like to instigate a change to the contract, they will need to work with the local authority that is a party to the contract.

The Department has not carried out an assessment of the profits earned by the private sector on private finance contracts relating to schools. At the point of initially procuring for contracts, the Department maximises value for money for the public sector by seeking the best price available in the market at that time.