About £30bn worth of PFI projects are currently not on the government’s balance books, including almost all PFI hospitals. They are therefore not affected by the government’s sustainable development rule that no more than 40% of gross domestic product will be made up of borrowings. But the new accounting rules may bring them back onto the public sector balance sheet, impacting on government finances.

In December, the Audit Commission issued a briefing paper warning trusts about the need to prepare for the introduction of the international standard. It said: “The resource implications of the transition are potentially very significant. Current, material transactions will need to be reviewed in detail to assess the impact of IFRS. In many instances, transactions may not generate accounting changes under IFRS, but sufficient analysis will need to be done in order to provide the supporting evidence for this.”

The Treasury is still considering how PFI will be counted under the international standard and has said that it has not yet decided whether its introduction will be postponed.

Elwyn Eilledge, chair of the Financial Reporting Advisory Board (FRAB), which advises the Treasury on accounting issues, described the lack of progress by the two departments as “frankly disappointing”, although he recognised that having just one year to make the switch was a very tight timeline. He said it was important to “keep up the momentum” of the move to the international standard.