Crown set‐off in insolvencies and health authority obligations

Health authorities are among the major spenders of Government funds in Britain. At any given time any health authority (like any other large purchaser of goods and services) will owe substantial amounts to suppliers and to contractors; and inevitably, upon occasion, some such creditor of a health authority becomes insolvent. The situation arises the more frequently from the fact that much health authority expenditure is on the construction and renovation of hospitals and other buildings — and the rate of insolvency in the building industry tends to be rather higher than the average.