Clause 11 - Power of Secretary of State to give financial assistance
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)
I welcome you back to our debate, Mr. Griffiths. I was midway through my remarks, and I have been scrabbling around in my notes to work out what I had asked the Minister, and he likewise. He plans to answer some of my questions in detail, so I shall not reiterate them now.
In concluding my remarks, I should like to touch on two issues to which I should be grateful for the Minster's response this afternoon. First, where will the allocation appear on the nation's accounts; both the new facility that he talked about this morning—which has been set up in his Department—and additional borrowing secured by foundation trusts from the private sector or other sources? Will it appear as part of the public sector borrowing requirement, or will it simply and only appear on the foundation trust's own balance sheets?
I touched on my second point as we were about to adjourn this morning. It concerns the impact of the national tariff's phased introduction on foundation and non-foundation trusts. Clearly, there is a risk. If a foundation trust can retain a surplus generated by producing its services at a lower cost than the national tariff, it will gain a specific benefit. It will be able to reinvest that money in additional services and improve its position relative to other trusts. Under the current rules, those trusts that are not entitled to foundation status must return any surplus generated in the same circumstances to the Treasury. Therefore, those trusts would be at a disadvantage. That highlights one of the reasons why my right hon. and hon. Friends and I had significant misgivings about the overall measure.