§ Mr. Kevin HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list(a) NHS trusts and (b) directly managed units which have received funding from (i) the Department of Health and (ii) the private sector for capital projects in each of the last four years, showing in each case the amount of funding involved.
§ Mr. Sackville[holding answer 15 December 1994]: Information is not available in the form requested. Capital funding for directly managed units is a matter for their parent district health authorities and information about individual units is not available centrally. National health 132W service trusts are not funded directly for capital expenditure. Projects are financed by a combination of internally generated resources from trading, principally depreciation and retained surpluses, and loans. The NHS Executive controls the total expenditure of NHS trusts through external financing limits which allow for capital expenditure up to a certain approved level. The actual amount of capital expenditure is for each trust to determine provided expenditure is contained within its external financing limit. A table will be placed in the Library showing actual expenditure on capital assets, excluding donated assets, by each NHS trust. Information is provided for the financial years 1991–92, 1992–93 and 1993–94. There were no NHS trusts prior to 1991–92.
NHS trusts do not normally use private sector funds for capital expenditure since loans are available to them from the NHS Executive at Treasury rates. NHS trusts principally use the private sector to obtain overdrafts to fund working capital requirements.