§ Mr. RandallTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if a hospital previously scheduled to be built under a PFI scheme will be eligible to apply for partial funding under the diagnostic and treatment centre funding programme. [66826]
§ Mr. HuttonWe are committed to an ambitious programme of new Diagnosis and Treatment Centres (DTCs). Some are on course to be developed as part of PFI projects, others through the use of public capital. We expect local National Health Service authorities to develop proposals based on sources of funding which offer the best value for money and speed of implementation. The ability to provide public funding for a part of a PFI scheme will depend on the degree of separability (and inter-dependence) of the DTC elements from the rest of the scheme.