The Private Finance Initiative (PFI)
Additional Guidance
Section 5 - General guidance
The documents below are available in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website. For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.
5.1 Opinion Letters
This OGC note explains why Government departments should not in future, as a matter of general policy, issue "opinion letters" on the powers of a particular department or authority to enter into a contract (usually a PFI contract) or on the authority of a particular official to sign the contract.
5.2 Draft Project Governance Guidance
This guidance looks at a number of aspects of project governance. The intention is not to set out a rigid template but to provide a framework for Authorities to think through the issues and how best to resolve them. Also included is a consideration of the roles of independent reviews (such as the OGC Gateway reviews), the links to the formal project approval processes (such as Project Review Group (PRG) for some Local Authority projects), and the impact of public sector issues.
This document is draft form at this stage. HM Treasury would be grateful for your views on this draft. Please send your comments in electronic format to Owain Ellis (Owain.Ellis@partnershipsuk.org.uk) by 13th February 2008.
5.3 HM Treasury finance director letter - draft IFRS accounting standard for PFI
The FD letter introduces a discussion paper on accounting for PPP arrangements, including PFI contracts, under IFRS.
5.4 - OGC/HMT joint guidance on using the Competitive Dialogue procedure
This OGC and HM Treasury joint guidance aims to assist contracting authorities with the competitive dialogue procedure, which is used when procuring complex projects. The new guidance aims to clarify a number of issues, with a view to lead to a reduction in the time and cost of many public sector procurements.
back to top
Public Private Partnerships / Private Finance Initiative index