§ Mr. Peter Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will extend the financial procedures of his Department outlined in appendix 8 of his circular on financial matters, October 1981, to permit health authorities which contracted with private firms for the provision of domestic or ancillary services to National Health Service hospitals prior to September 1981 to offset the cost of value added tax incurred in the same way as is permitted to those who entered into contracts after that date.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe financial procedures referred to by my hon. Friend were intended to allow health authorities to disregard the effect of VAT when making cost comparisons between providing a service in-house or deciding to contract-out to a private firm. Health authorities who had already decided to a contract-out service must have found that to do so would be financially advantageous even taking VAT into account. Thus there is no purpose to be achieved by extending the concession to such cases.
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§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, for each year since 1974, which health authorities have initiated private contract work for (a) laundry, (b) domestic cleaning and (c) catering.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergInformation in this form is not available centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.