Private Finance Initiative

I am not necessarily saying that PFI should not happen at all, but that contracts should be negotiated in the correct fashion to minimise the taxpayer's exposure to situations such as those we have seen. Contracts must be right when ensuring that organisations are a suitable size, for example, to fit into the local health economy. With hindsight, we might question whether the PFI hospital at Coventry was too large for the wider Coventry and Warwickshire health economy. The general point is that we must get the issue right in future. I accept the comments of the hon. Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy), but I am confident that Ministers are ensuring that any contract negotiations will be made properly, so that we do not over-commit the Government, as was done previously.