Hospitals in England will not be able to compete with each other on price when GP consortiums take charge of most of the NHS budget in April 2013, the health secretary has said.

In what is seen as an unusual step, Andrew Lansley has tabled an amendment to his own Health and Social Care Bill that removes powers from the regulator Monitor to set maximum tariffs for services that could have made it possible for providers to bid for contracts at a price below the standard NHS tariff. The changes also remove the ability to vary prices according to whether a provider is in public or private hands. …