§ Mr. CatonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make it his policy to require the release of detailed information, withheld from the public on the grounds of commercial confidentiality when private finance initiative contracts are awarded in the NHS, after a period of three years to permit assessment of their value for money; [66435]
(2) if he will provide information on PFI schemes, withheld on the grounds of commercial confidentiality, to bona fide research bodies, to make objective assessments of their value for money. [67075]
§ Mr. HuttonThe National Audit Office has indefinite access to all information in the business cases and private finance initiative contracts to allow independent, objective assessments of value for money.
§ Mr. CatonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what method the Government use to measure the value of risk in assessing value for money for NHS private finance initiative projects in the NHS. [65532]
§ Mr. HuttonHer Majesty's Treasury and the Department's guidance requires that a register of all risks is compiled which will provide a means for monitoring the evaluation and allocation of risk throughout the procurement exercise and whole life of private finance initiative project.
The methodology for assessing the values of risk includes standard techniques such as weighting and scoring analysis, single point and multi-point probability analysis. In addition, sensitivity analysis should always be undertaken on the risks which have been assessed as having relatively large values and those which are subject to the greatest uncertainty (e.g. due to lack of historical
1086Winformation). National health service trusts are required to use as much empirical information as possible in all their risk calculations.