The Times: PFI deals choke healthy eating

PRIVATE finance initiative (PFI) deals could stop as many as 450 schools from implementing the Government’s healthy eating plans because some contracts force schools to install vending machines containing junk food, reports The Times Educational Supplement (March 25).

School governors say that many schools have been compelled to install machines selling crisps and sweets into their new buildings, with the profits going to the contractors. PFI companies refused to discuss the contracts with the TES. Gillian Winders, from the National Governors’ Council, says: “People sometimes don’t realise that they have signed away their control of food policy. You can get stuck with a contract that you cannot change.”

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