§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer by how much has Government spending changed in 1994–95 as a result of the private finance initiative; what is the estimated effect in 1995–96; how many jobs are to be created by schemes approved to date under the initiative and how many have been lost as a consequence in the public sector; and what is the forecast of transfer of employment from public to private sector over the last five years because of the initiative. [30825]
§ Sir George Young[holding answer 28 June 1995]: The presence of private finance and management expertise will often allow projects that would not have gone ahead under conventional procurement either to go ahead, or to go ahead earlier. However, many factors were taken into account in determining priorities for public expenditure in 1994–95 and 1995–96, and it is not possible to measure the impact of the initiative in isolation.
Records are not kept centrally of the effect of the initiative on patterns of employment, but the number of jobs transferred from public to private sector as a result of the initiative to date is small. As the initiative allows more and better projects to go ahead, it will tend to create jobs, particularly in the private sector.
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