To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the total value of private finance initiative projects included in his Department’s balance sheet (a) is in 2007 and (b) was in each of the last five years, broken down by project. (137844)

The value of private finance initiative (PFI) projects included in the core Department and Environment Agency’s balance sheets as at 31 March 2007 was nil. This was also the case in each of the last five years. All DEFRA PFI projects are treated as “off-balance sheet”.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the value was of annual private finance initiative payments made by his Department from (a) capital and (b) revenue budgets in each of the last five years. (137845)

The core Department is currently involved in one private finance initiative (PFI) project to provide office facilities at Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge. There are also two PFI projects being undertaken by the Environment Agency, one of our sponsored non-departmental public bodies.

Information about the value of annual PFI payments for the last five years, made by the core Department and the Environment Agency are set out in the following table. All payments were made from revenue budgets.

The Department also provides support in the form of PFI credits to allow local authorities to enter into PFI contracts to provide waste recycling and management facilities. However, payments for these PFI projects are made by the relevant local authorities from their revenue budgets and do not fall within DEFRA's accounting boundary.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what value of annual private finance initiative payments by his Department was classified as (a) identifiable and (b) non-identifiable in each of the last five years, broken down by project. (137846)

The core Department is currently involved in one private finance initiative (PFI) project to provide office facilities at Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge. There are also two PFI projects being undertaken by the Environment Agency, one of our sponsored non-departmental public bodies.

Information about the value of annual PFI payments, in the last five years, made by the core Department and the Environment Agency are set out in the following table.

All payments made under PFI are identifiable. Prior to a PFI contract being signed the profile of unitary charge payments is agreed between the contractor and the public sector, subject to the operation of the payment mechanism

The Department also provides support in the form of PFI credits to allow local authorities to enter into PFI contracts to provide waste recycling and management facilities. However, payments for these PFI projects are made by the relevant local authorities and do not fall within DEFRA's accounting boundary.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what value of annual private finance initiative (PFI) payments were (a) to repay capital and (b) expenditure on other parts of each PFI contract in each of the last five years, broken down by project. (137847)

The core Department is engaged in one private finance initiative (PFI) project to provide office facilities at Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge. The Environment Agency, which is a non-departmental body of DEFRA, has let two public/private partnership contracts for flood risk management.

Information about the total value of annual PFI payments made by the core Department and the Environment Agency in the last five years is set out in the following table. These payments include both the repayment of the capital and expenditure on other parts of the PFI contract. Details of the breakdown of annual PFI payments into different elements is not held centrally and obtaining this information would incur disproportionate costs for the department.

The Department also provides support in the form of PFI credits to allow local authorities to enter into PFI contracts to provide waste recycling and management facilities. However, payments for these PFI projects are made by the relevant local authorities and do not fall within DEFRA’s accounting boundary.