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The Termination Of The Pfi Contract For The National Physical Laboratory
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Book Synopsis The Termination of the PFI Contract for the National Physical Laboratory by : Great Britain: National Audit Office
Download or read book The Termination of the PFI Contract for the National Physical Laboratory written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-05-10 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1998, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Laser, a special purpose company jointly owned by Serco Group plc and John Laing plc, signed a 25-year long Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract. Laser would build and manage new facilities for the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), comprising 16 linked modules, containing over 400 laboratories, and replacing many existing buildings. The planned cost of the new buildings was approximately £96 million. The DTI would pay Laser a unitary charge, of £11.5 million (1998 prices) a year once the new buildings were ready, the charge increasing annually based on the increase in retail prices. The project suffered considerable construction delays and difficulties in achieving the specification for some parts of the buildings, mainly due to deficient design. In December 2004, it was agreed to terminate the PFI contract. The DTI paid Laser £75 million for its interest in the new buildings. This was the first termination of a major PFI contract involving serious non-performance. This report examines the problems that led to the termination, why these problems arose, how the Department managed them and the value for money consequences of the termination. The report finds that the DTI successfully transferred risk in the PFI contract to the private sector, but that the project risks could have been reduced with firmer control and better communication. Up to and including the termination, the Department's investment in the new facilities was about £122 million (March 2005 prices). In return, the Department secured an asset valued at £85 million and for which all but eight of more than 400 laboratories should be capable of being made to meet its specification in full. The private sector reported a loss of at least £100 million.
Book Synopsis Public Sector Management by : Norman Flynn
Download or read book Public Sector Management written by Norman Flynn and published by Sage Publications (CA). This book was released on 2007 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fifth Edition of this popular textbook provides students and practitioners with a jargon-free description, analysis and critique of the management of the public sector by the UK government. Fully revised and updated, it assesses the policies and performance of the second and third Blair administrations with completely new material on Public-Private Partnerships, Private Finance Initiative and the management of the railways and London Underground. Written in a highly accessible yet analytical style, The Fifth Edition includes chapter summaries, thematically organized further reading, and a website with resources for students and lecturers.
Book Synopsis Law and Administration by : Carol Harlow
Download or read book Law and Administration written by Carol Harlow and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-20 with total page 881 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A contextualised study setting out the foundations of administrative law, with discussion of case law and legislation to show practical application.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215037350 Total Pages :44 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (373 download)
Book Synopsis H.M. Treasury by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book H.M. Treasury written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-11-27 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) there are now 800 contracts with private sector suppliers for services worth in total £155 billion up to 2032. To achieve value for money, all stages of a project have to be managed effectively, including in the tendering process. The Committee, in a 2003 report highlighted a number of issues regarding the PFI tendering process (HCP 764, session 2002-03, ISBN 9780215011244). This report re-examines the tendering and benchmarking in PFI, finding that the Treasury had done little to apply what it had learned from the large number of PFI deals signed; that there has been no improvement in tendering times and significant risks to value for money continue to be taken when public authorities make late changes to deals. The Committee has set out 7 conclusions and recommendations, including: that since 2004, the proportion of deals attracting only two bidders has more than doubled with the risk of no competition; one third of public sector teams made changes to PFI projects after they had selected a single, preferred bidder; benchmarking and market testing have increased prices by up to 14%; public authorities have found it difficult to find appropriate data to benchmark PFI service costs; there is evidence that public authorities, faced with price increases have had to cut back services in hospitals, including portering, to keep contracts affordable; that there is a continuing lack of PFI experience and skills within public procurement teams.
Book Synopsis The National Programme for IT in the NHS by : Great Britain: National Audit Office
Download or read book The National Programme for IT in the NHS written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-06-16 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Programme for Information Technology in the NHS (the Programme) is a ten year programme to use information technology (IT) to reform the way the NHS in England uses information, and hence to improve services and the quality of patient care. The core of the Programme will be the NHS Care Records Service, but other elements include x-rays accessible by computer, electronic transmission of prescriptions, and booking of first outpatient appointments. The Programme was launched in 2002, and is now run by an agency, NHS Connecting for Health. This report examines: the progress made in delivering the systems against the original plans and costs (part 1); steps taken by the Department of Health, the agency and the NHS to deliver the Programme (part 2); how the IT systems have been procured (part 3); how the NHS is preparing to use the systems (part 4). The NAO estimates the gross cost of the Programme will be £12.4 billion to 2013-14. Although the pilot NHS Care Records Service will not be in place until late 2006, almost two years late, and other milestones have been deferred, the NAO reports substantial progress with the Programme. Management systems are in place, contracts were placed quickly and achieved large reductions in prices from bidders, and contract terms include important safeguards to secure value for money. Deployments of operational systems have begun, and several additional tasks have been delivered that were outside the original brief. Three key areas are identified which present significant challenges to the successful implementation of the Programme: ensuring IT suppliers continue to deliver systems that meet the needs of the NHS, to agreed timescales without further slippage; ensuring NHS organizations play a full part in implementing the systems; winning the support of NHS staff and the public in making the best use of the systems to improve services. The NAO report makes a number of recommendations for future management of the Programme.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215532251 Total Pages :264 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (322 download)
Book Synopsis Good government by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee
Download or read book Good government written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-18 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating HC 983-i-iv, session 2007-08
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215036155 Total Pages :48 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (361 download)
Book Synopsis The Shareholder Executive and public sector businesses by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book The Shareholder Executive and public sector businesses written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-09-20 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This particular report follows on from an earlier NAO report on the same topic, see (HCP 255, 06/07 ISBN 9780102944518), published February 2007. The Shareholder Executive was established in 2003, to act as an effective owner of businesses that are owned or part-owned by government. It is now an operational group within the Department of Trade and Industry, with a portfolio covering 27 businesses and a combined turnover of £21 billion. The Committee notes that the role of the Executive marries both public and private objectives, setting out to both achieve public policy objectives through the most cost effective means and provide a satisfactory return on the public money invested through the shareholder value. The Committee states that the Executive has delivered value for the taxpayer by adopting a business criteria through a framework that sets out clear priorities for the businesses, alongside performance monitoring and, with management held to account for their delivery. The Committee sets out a number of conclusions and recommendations, including: that the Department of Trade & Industry is setting up a Board to provide direction and accountability for the Executive; that there should be a presumption that all government businesses come within the Executive's portfolio; that the Executive should market its services comprehensively and seek to be more visible across government; that the Executive should be given an explicit responsibility for advising sponsor departments on the investment needs of their businesses; that the performance management of the Executive needs to include wider measures that are based on the results of individual businesses; also, that the Executive needs sufficient pay flexibility to continue to recruit high calibre staff; that the Executive's responsibility for the postal services industry extends beyond shareholder value issues, and the Committee believes the Department should identify options for relieving the Executive of responsibility for Royal Mail policy; that the Executive should set business-level dividend targets, which take into account the risks faced by the business and the Executive should systematically undertake valuations of the businesses in its portfolio.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :0215034929 Total Pages :56 pages Book Rating :4.2/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis Preparations for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Preparations for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-07-10 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on from the NAO report (HCP 252, session 2006-07; ISBN 9780102944273) published in February 2007, the Committee has examined the progress that has been made in preparing for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the areas of risk that will need to be managed. The report highlights seven main areas of risk including: i) the governance and delivery structures needed to co-ordinate the multiplicity of organisations and groups involved in the Games; ii) given the immovable deadline of the Games, any slippage in the delivery programme risks rising costs or a reduction in quality; iii) as the ultimate guarantor of funding for the Games, the Government needs to ensure the budget for the Games is clearly determined and effectively managed, given that the costs of the Games were seriously underestimated at the time of the bid; iv) the need for clarity in planning to ensure a lasting legacy for venues after the Games are over; and v) planning to minimise the impact of funding the Games on other National Lottery good causes.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :0215035062 Total Pages :52 pages Book Rating :4.2/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis Dr Foster Intelligence by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Dr Foster Intelligence written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-07-18 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department of Health established the Information Centre in April 2005, in order to centralise the collection and dissemination of information across the NHS to support their health reform agenda. In February 2006, 'Dr Foster Intelligence' was launched, a joint venture between the Information Centre and Dr Foster Ltd (a private company already successful in health data dissemination) with the aim of developing information products and services which would encourage senior, strategic NHS staff to make effective use of information. The Committee sets out a number of recommendations, including: without a competitive tender, the joint venture seemed to offer an advantage to one company; also without competition, the Information Centre cannot demonstate that it paid the best price for its 50% share; the joint venture deal did not follow established good practice in public sector procurement; the cost of professional advice rose from an initial estimate of £248,000 to between £1.75 and £2.5 million; that the Department and the Information Centre could have made use of wider government experience on forming public private partnerships; it is unclear what benefits the Information Centre will receive from the joint venture; the first year saw a loss of £2.8 million.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215036186 Total Pages :36 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (361 download)
Book Synopsis Improving procurement in further education colleges in England by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Improving procurement in further education colleges in England written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-04 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2004 Gershon Efficiency Review proposed procurement as one of the main sources of efficiency savings in the public sector. The Learning and Skills Council, which funds England's 384 further education colleges, estimates that from an annual procurement expenditure of £1.6 billion, colleges could make savings of £75 million by March 2008. The savings made by colleges would be available to be redeployed into front-line services for learners. Until recently, many colleges have tended to treat procurement as a low priority and have not taken advantage of modern procurement methods such as purchasing consortia and procurement cards. They now need to modernise their systems so as to maximise the resources available for learning. Colleges increasingly have staff who are capable of managing procurement, but they are too often let down by the low quality of the systems and the management information available to them. There have been recent successes in persuading colleges of the benefits of joining purchasing consortia and using procurement cards. Indeed the savings target of £75 million may prove unambitious in light of the low starting point of many colleges. March 2008, when colleges make their first reports on savings to the Learning and Skills Council, will be a good time to consider whether greater savings can be made to be re-invested into services for learners.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215037473 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (374 download)
Book Synopsis Managing the defence estate by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Managing the defence estate written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-11-29 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has an extensive and complex estate of some 24,000 hectares, and after the Forestry Commission, is the second largest landowner in the UK. The estate is valued at over £18 billion and costs some £3.3 billion to operate. The estate is seen as essential to the delivery of military capability and the welfare and morale of Service personnel. This report, from the Committee of Public Accounts, has taken evidence from the MoD on the standard of living accommodation, the Department's ability to prioritise estate projects effectively, and its response to staff shortages. It follows on from an NAO report (HCP 154, session 2006-7), Managing the Defence Estate: Quality and Sustainability (ISBN 9780102944679). It sets out 9 recommendations, including: more than half of single living accommodation and over 40% of family accommodation does not meet the Department's definition of high-quality accommodation and is therefore substandard; that poor accommodation has a negative impact on retention rates; there is no information on when poor accommodation is to be upgraded, with some military personnel and their families having to continue to live in substandard housing for the next 20 years; there are gaps in the Department's understanding of estate costs; the Department employs only 56% of safety works staff and 57% of quantity surveyors that it needs; that implementing energy saving measures at its' defence sites would bring environmental benefits and savings of more than £2 million annually.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215037152 Total Pages :44 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (371 download)
Book Synopsis Big science by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Big science written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-11-13 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government invests in a range of large scientific facilities to support and develop the nation's science base, with over £860 million allocated since 2000 to construct 10 new large scientific projects. These programmes include: a Diamond Synchrotron (costing £383 million) to produce intense X-rays and shorter wavelength emissions for examining structures at molecular and atomic level; a new research ship, RRS James Cook, to conduct oceanographic and marine studies (a budget of £40 million); and a new Antarctic research station (with a budget of £34.7 million) for monitoring climate, ozone and space weather. Following on from a NAO report on this topic (HCP 153, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780102944198) published in January 2007, the Committee's report examines how large scientific facilities are delivered and the how their value is assessed. Findings include that the first two projects have been delivered largely to time and budget, but other projects still at an early stage are forecasting slippage, with five of the six most mature projects forecasting significant increases in the initial estimates for operating costs. Research Councils have not always sufficiently evaluated options for locating new scientific facilities and have had difficulty in attracting a sufficient number of bidders for contracts to help build new facilities. Performance indicators used by the Research Councils and project teams for monitoring the success of these facilities are not always sufficiently comprehensive or measurable, and if the UK is to maximise the value of these facilities, it needs to attract more young people into science to make good use of the research capacity now being built.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215036339 Total Pages :60 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (363 download)
Book Synopsis Assets Recovery Agency by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Assets Recovery Agency written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-12 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Assets Recovery Agency (the Agency) was set up in 2003 to recover assets from criminals using new and unique powers of civil recovery as well as criminal confiscation and taxation. It was also tasked with the training, accreditation and monitoring of financial investigators. The Agency is to be disbanded in 2008. It was set up with insufficient preparatory work. There was no business case setting out the expectations for the Agency, resulting in unachievable delivery aims. It is reliant on cases being referred to it by other authorities, but only 707 cases have been referred from 129 out of 696 potential referral partners. The Agency did not develop effective work processes: it failed to keep a comprehensive database of cases referred to it; it did not invest in a time-recording system to manage and monitor staff time and the cost of cases; and it failed to put in place processes to enable management to monitor the progression of cases effectively. Receivers' fees accounted for almost a quarter of the budget but fixed price contracts were not introduced until April 2006. The Agency's office is in central London, heavily reliant on temporary staff, and with high levels of staff turnover. The Agency had recovered assets amounting to only £23 million by December 2006 against expenditure of £65 million, and it has not met its target of becoming self-financing by 2005-06. Asset recovery has been slow because in most cases the full value of the assets was pursued through the courts rather than seeking settlement for a proportion of the assets. The Agency has not been adequately monitoring the accreditation of trained financial investigators. Of the 4,500 financial investigators trained at almost £700 per place, only 1,400 of those were active in the role by summer 2006.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215036728 Total Pages :44 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (367 download)
Book Synopsis Helping newly registered business meet their tax obligations by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Helping newly registered business meet their tax obligations written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-25 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The NAO report on this topic was published as HC 98, session 2006-07 (ISBN 9780102943825)
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215036247 Total Pages :48 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (362 download)
Book Synopsis The efficiency programme by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book The efficiency programme written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-11 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government's Efficiency Programme is designed to achieve ongoing efficiency gains across the public sector of £21.5 billion a year by 2007-08 to improve front line services, to reduce Civil Service posts by more than 70,000 and to reallocate a further 13,500 posts to front line services.Departments are responsible for delivering and quantifying the efficiencies achieved while the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) checks the robustness of figures put forward and provides support to help departments deliver their gains. On 26 February the Committee took evidence on the £13.3 billion of annual efficiency gains departments had reported up to 30 September 2006. While some of these reported gains are robust, almost £10 billion of reported efficiency gains remain uncertain. On the basis of a Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General,evidence was taken from OGC and the Treasury on four main issues: the measurement of efficiency gains and headcount reductions; the effects of efficiency projects on service quality; the management of the Programme; and embedding a culture of efficiency into the public sector.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215036056 Total Pages :52 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (36 download)
Book Synopsis Ministry of Defence by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Ministry of Defence written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-09-11 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report from the Committee of Public Accounts provides information on the time, cost and performance of the 20 largest projects of the Ministry of Defence where the main investment decision (known as Main Gate) has been taken. This report follows on from a two volume NAO report published in November 2006 (HCP 23-I/23-II, 06/07 - ISBNs 9780102943740; 9780102943733), into the major projects of the Ministry of Defence. Evidence was taken by the Committee based on the NAO report, covering three main issues: the impact of the cost saving measures identified by the Departmental reviews in 2005-06; the performance of individual projects; the Department's initiatives to improve acquisition performance. The Department undertook a review of the 20 post-Main Gate projects, which reduced costs by £781 million. With £91 million a HM Revenue & Customs rebate, and £242 million the result of better management of commercial and contractual arrangements. But, £448 million of the costs were reclassified as expenditure in other procurement or support budgets or towards corporate management. The re-allocations have, according to the Committee, achieved cost reductions for individual projects, but do not represent a saving for the Department as a whole. Total forecast costs for the approved projects amounts to £27 billion, some 11% over budget. Forecast in-service dates slipped 33 months in-year, and there is a cumulative delay of 433 months for projects over their lives so far. The Department is now placing increased emphasis on through life management of Defence projects, involving the life-cycle management of the projects, services and activities.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215036445 Total Pages :54 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (364 download)
Book Synopsis The Academies Programme by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book The Academies Programme written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-18 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An academy is a new type of school that is publicly funded, supported by one or more sponsors and operates independently of the local authority. Their aim is to raise achievement standards in deprived areas by replacing poorly performing schools or by providing new school places where they are needed. 83 academies were in operation by September 2007, with plans for 200 academies to be opened by 2010 at a capital cost of around £5 billion. Following on from a NAO report on this topic (HCP 254, session 2006-07; ISBN 9780102944426) published in February 2007, the Committee's report examines the progress of the Academies Programme and whether it is on track to achieve its objectives. Findings include: i) the average capital cost of the first new-build academies was £27 million, compared with between £20-22 million for other new secondary schools; ii) exclusions of pupils are higher on average from academies that other schools; and iii) although there are signs of progress being made, such as improvements at GCSE and key stage 3 levels, achievements in literacy and numeracy levels are lower than other secondary schools and it is too early to tell whether rising attainment is sustainable. Academies need to collaborate more with other secondary schools and lessons need to be learned from completed academy projects in terms of improving project management and reducing cost overruns.
