4.15 Access to capital funding under PFI is no longer an option for NHS providers. The Chancellor confirmed at the October 2018 Budget that no further PFI projects could be entered into, but existing projects would be honoured. There are 156 existing PFI and Local Improvement and Finance Trust schemes with a total future commitment of £52.4 billion. Of these, 26 schemes each have a total future commitment greater than £500 million.
4.16 Two PFI hospital projects, for Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, were being built when the construction company Carillion collapsed and required government support. We examined the costs of these projects in a separate report on the rescue of the two PFI hospitals, published on 17 January 2020.10
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10 Comptroller and Auditor General, Investigation into the rescue of Carillion's PFI hospital contracts, Session 2019-20, HC 23, National Audit Office, January 2020.