1.9 Our work on PFI hospitals found no evidence of operational efficiency: the costs of services in the samples we analysed were similar.10 Some of those data are more than 10 years old. More recent data from the NHS London Procurement Partnership shows that the cost of services, like cleaning, in London hospitals is higher under PFI contracts. The Department of Health and Social Care considers these costs may not be comparable owing to the risk transfer of the PFI contracts and the potential for differing cleaning standards between contracts. Departments who responded to our 2017 survey question considered that operational costs were either similar or higher under PFI (four departments provided a response to this question - three considered operational costs were higher under PFI and the other department considered they were the same).
1.10 The public sector could combine contracts for construction of an asset with other services such as long-term maintenance and cleaning. However it normally chooses not to do so and under PF2, services such as cleaning and catering will usually be excluded from the contract (paragraph 3.8).
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10 Comptroller and Auditor General, The performance and management of hospital PFI contracts, Session 2010-11, HC 68, National Audit Office, June 2010, paragraph 9.