§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many universities have made use of the private finance initiative to date; and what is the total expenditure involved. [8425]
§ Mr. ForthI have been asked to reply.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England has an active programme for seeking private finance initiative "pathfinder" projects which can be used as exemplars of good practice for the sector as a whole. So far, 12 institutions have been awarded this status and are progressing projects to a capital value of some £120 million. The funding council has recently closed 211W round two of its "pathfinder" programme, and we expect announcements regarding additional successful projects early in the new year.
Universities are autonomous institutions and make their own procurement decisions. It is therefore impossible to know the exact number of institutions which have procurement arrangements involving private finance. The Higher Education Funding Council for England estimates that total commercial funding in the sector to date exceeds £1.6 billion.