PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
NHS: Accountancy (15 December 2022)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's policy is on the accounting treatment of assets acquired by the NHS after the end of the term of a Private Finance Initiative.

Asked by:
Karin Smyth (Labour)

The Department accounting policy for acquired private finance initiative (PFI) assets follows the approach in HM Treasury’s Financial Reporting Manual (FReM). This states how Departments and its bodies are expected to apply International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The Department will account for owned assets at the end of a PFI per International Accounting Standard (IAS) 16: Plant, Property and Equipment as adapted and interpreted by the FReM.

Where a PFI arrangement is accounted for as on the Statement of Financial Position, the approach to accounting for an acquired asset will not change at the end of the PFI arrangement. The Department’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2020/21 states that 175 of 182 PFI arrangements are accounted for as owned assets on the Statement of Financial Position. If any asset is acquired at the end of one of the remaining seven PFI arrangements not already accounted for as assets on the Statement of Financial Position, any asset would be accounted for using the relevant standard, following the guidance of the FReM in applying IFRS.

Answered by:
Will Quince (Conservative)
23 December 2022