Departments: PFI

Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the value is of the unitary payments of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by his Department over the lifetime of the contract expressed in 2007-08 prices and discounted to present value.

Mr. Byrne
Details of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by the Home Department with information on estimated unitary charges for 2007-08 is available on HM Treasury’s website at:

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/documents/public_private_partnerships/ppp_pfi_stats.cfm

The estimated unitary charge is based on 2006-07 actual charges and is not simply repayments for capital value of the project but frequently include other factors such as inflation, service provision, capital repayments and major refurbishment.

To provide information on the unitary payments over the lifetime of the contract expressed in 2007-08 prices and discounted to present value would incur disproportionate costs. On average an appropriate discount rate to use for providing an Net Present Value (NPV) total would be as set out in the Green Book as real discount rate of 3.5 per cent.

The signed deals list covers unitary charges up until 2033-34 and to update the figures to cover the duration of the contract would incur disproportionate cost.