§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the allocations made to individual trusts to pursue private finance initiative bids. [9033]
§ Mr. HoramNational health service trusts develop outline business cases for capital investment at their own expense. Where an outline business case is approved, regional offices have discretion to allocate funds for development of the full business case for the investment, a process which includes exploring the potential for a private finance solution. The capital investment manual, copies of which are available in the Library, suggests a budget of around 1 per cent. of the estimated value of the capital investment for the preparation of the outline and full business cases, including any costs incurred in testing for private finance, as well as other costs, such as design work. Actual figures on amounts allocated to develop full business cases are not available centrally.