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 relieve the premium costs to Barts NHS Trust of the Barts PFI projects.

One of the first things the Coalition Government did in 2010 was to launch a review of the previous Government’s Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) and begin an initiative to extract savings and better value for money at all the PFI contracts they had signed and are now open. In 2014 it was reported that trusts had negotiated validated savings worth over £250 million on their contracts. This savings work is ongoing, with Departmental officials helping local trusts as required.

Barts Health NHS Trust's recovery plan is focused on day-to-day operational improvements that can be made to improve grip and efficiency of the Trust. This includes elements of the PFI contract that could lead to efficiency savings, including the recent re-tendering of the Trust’s soft Facilities Management contract.