North East Fife: Non-executive director of Scottish American Investment Company plc since 2007. The investment company took over one of the care homes when Southern Cross collapsed. His spokeswoman said: "It is Sir Menzies' understanding that negotiations for another care provider to take over the running of the care home in question are at an advanced stage. Sir Menzies has no further comment to make." The holdings are listed here including healthcare. 133134135
2. Vince Cable
MP for Twickenham and Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills. Received a donation of £2,000 from Chartwell Care Services, who are 100% owned by Chartwell Health & Care PLC who own Chartwell Private Hospitals plc that provide day case surgery to NHS patients. 136 The ultimate owner is Normandy Group Ltd.
137
3. Nick Clegg
MP for Sheffield, Hallam received a donation to his constituency office for £5,000 from Alpha Medical Consultancy - has nationwide affiliations with premium providers of diagnostic and rehabilitation services. Alpha’s partners offer high quality medico-legal rehabilitation. 138139
4. Simon Hughes
MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark. Received £60,000 donation to his constituency party from the founder of Alpha Hospitals a private hospital firm. 140
5. Stephen Lloyd
MP for Eastbourne. Received £544.92 aggregated over time for office equipment from Platon Medical Ltd - who provides Ear, Nose and throat devices. 141142
6. Robert Smith
MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kilncardine - Has shares in pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Shares in Legal and General, which offers medical insurance. 143
7. Jo Swinson
MP for East Dunbartonshire. Received a donation of £2,000 September 2013 from private optician company, Peter Ivins Eye Care. 144
Jeremy Hunt, the hedge fund boss, and the new NHS private finance scheme that will pay bankers for deaths at home
In a nutshell
Jeremy Hunt has received donations from a major hedge fund boss, Andrew Law, with multi-million healthcare investments. Law sponsors Social Finance Ltd., which is pioneering ‘pay for success’ bonds to bring new private finance into the NHS. The pilot scheme is about to be launched in Sandwell and West Birmingham, under a Health and Social Care Act tender for ‘end of life’ services that could create mega profits for private investors – and perverse incentives to let vulnerable people die at home.
Key points
Jeremy Hunt and the hedge fund boss
Andrew Law is a major hedge fund boss with multi-million healthcare investments.
Law has donated over £600,000 to the Tories; including two cash donations directly to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s constituency.
Social Finance Ltd.
Law is a board member and funder of ‘Social Finance Ltd.’, which pioneers new techniques to bring private finance into public services.
One of Social Finance Ltd’s inventions is ‘Social Impact Bonds (SIBs)’, also called ‘pay for success’ bonds, which it is promoting to bridge the NHS ‘funding gap’.
The first NHS Social Investment Bond is currently being developed by the Department of Health and Social Finance Ltd. This will involve a project to run ‘end of life care’ in Sandwell and West Birmingham, tendered out under the Health and Social Care Act.
Investors in the project will receive higher profits if increased numbers of people die at home, and there are fewer emergency hospital admissions. This could create perverse incentives, as private investors stand to win if patients are left to die without hospital treatment.
Mega profits
Social Investment bonds could make investors big profits out of the NHS, with interest rates perhaps as high as 12%.
The biggest private investor in SIBs is global investment bank Goldman Sachs. Including Law, at least seven Social Finance board members and executives are ex-Goldman Sachs.
Detail with references
Andrew Law
Andrew Law is a major hedge fund boss with multi-million healthcare investments. Andrew Law is Chairman and CEO of Caxton Associates LP, a global hedge fund based in New York, with offices in London and elsewhere. Caxton is a major health investor, with over $210 million direct investment in global healthcare companies (as of 2011).145 Its founder Bruce Kovner is a major donor to the Republican Party and conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI).146147 Law has an unusual background for a hedge fund boss. He is English, from Cheshire, went to state school, and supports Manchester City. He has worked at Caxton since 2003, and took over as CEO when Kovner retired in 2011. Law’s previous job was at Goldman Sachs, where he was head of fixed income trading (i.e., trading in bonds and other forms of debt).148
Law and Jeremy Hunt
Andrew Law has donated over £600,000 to the Tories; including two donations directly to Jeremy Hunt’s constituency. Law has made 46 donations to Conservative party central office between December 2008 and June 2014, totalling well over £1,229,677.
Law has also donated directly to the South West Surrey constituency on ten occasions: from 2004 to 2014 giving £32,920. This is the constituency of Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health.
Social Finance Ltd
Law is a board member and funder of ‘Social Finance Ltd.’, which invents new ways to bring private finance into public services. Andrew Law and his wife Zoe have a charitable foundation called ‘Law Family Charitable Foundation’. According to its website, the foundation supports 8 charities. One of these is Social Finance Ltd., of which Law is also a board member and a shareholder.
Social Finance Ltd was set up in 2007. As the Laws’ foundation describes it, “Social Finance was set up in 2007 to help build a social investment market in the UK.”149 On its own website, Social Finance says it was set up “to understand the funding shortfall faced by the social sector”. It is known for having designed the £600 million ‘Big Society Capital’ fund launched by David Cameron in 2010, and having invented ‘Social Impact Bonds’. Social Finance has two sister companies in the US and Israel. Social Finance works very closely with global investment firms, noticeably Goldman Sachs (see below).
Social Finance Ltd has a number of project areas including ‘health and social care’. It describes its work in health as follows: “We support commissioners and providers to develop alternative models of funding and delivering transformative care services.”150
