Q91 Mr Bacon: Hang on a minute, you do not know how much debt is likely to arise from the PFI projects that you have signed? How can you plan, how can the Chancellor do a Budget if you are not able to advise him each year and in aggregate over a period of years going forward how much debt is likely to arise? This is to Mr Pocklington: how can you possibly not know?
Mr Pocklington: I think it is important to think about how PFI impacts on the public finances, which I think is fundamentally what is lying behind your question.
Q92 Mr Bacon: There is an annual unitary charge for each project and, correct me if I am wrong, but each project more or less has a unitary charge of a different amount and if you add them all up you get the total amount annually for one year of the unitary charge that has to be paid, and if you do that going forward you would get the total debt amount likely to arise therefrom, would you not-
Mr Pocklington: I apologise-
Q93 Mr Bacon: -would you not?
Mr Pocklington: I apologise, Mr Bacon, I misunderstood your original question.
Q94 Mr Bacon: Can I be clear that what I have just said is correct. I take the annual unitary charge for all the PFI projects, I add them up, I get the total amount in one year of annual unitary charges in total which I must pay; is that correct? Is that correct, yes or no?
Mr Pocklington: That would be the total amount the public sector is paying.2
Q95 Mr Bacon: In one year?
Mr Pocklington: In one year in unitary charges.
Q96 Mr Bacon: Yes, now if I add them all up going forward, in each case for the life of the contract, add them all up over the years, then I would get, would I not, the debt amount likely to arise there from in total?
Mr Pocklington: You would get the total amount the public sector has paid through unitary charges.
Q97 Mr Bacon: Not has paid, I am talking about the future.
Mr Pocklington: Sorry, it is projected to pay.
Q98 Mr Bacon: Yes, and you must know what that number is otherwise you could not plan, you could not budget, you could not do anything, so you must know that number, must you not?
Mr Pocklington: Yes.
Q99 Mr Bacon: What is it?
Mr Pocklington: We publish the unitary charge data for the forthcoming 26 years on an annual basis at Pre-Budget Reports and Budget Reports.
Q100 Mr Bacon: And what is it?
Mr Pocklington: I do not have-
___________________________________________________________________
2 Ev 13-14