This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Initial evaluation of PPP projects
13/05/2005
Research published today evaluates the performance of
Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects in Scotland.
In an initial scoping phase of evaluation, researchers
sent questionnaires to the public authority and private
sector contractor responsible for each operational PPP in
Scotland.
The main findings include:
- The majority of authorities considered PPP to
represent good or excellent value for money
- PPP procurement resulted in significant
improvements over conventional procurement in
delivering projects on time and within budget
- Respondents said there was a "generally healthy"
level of competition for the PPP projects surveyed,
although the level of competition appears to have
reduced in recent years
- Authorities were happy with design quality
- Some concerns were raised about the flexibility of
PPP contracts
- There was evidence that PPP stimulated innovation
- The research found no evidence that PPP operators
delivered a better or worse standard of service than
the public sector
The findings are based on 64 PPPs which were contracted
between 1992 and 2002. There are a number of
recommendations made to the Executive, including proposals
for further monitoring and study.
Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform Tom
McCabe said:
"I believe this research underlines once again that PPP
projects make a significant contribution to the delivery of
high-quality public services in Scotland. There is no doubt
it has delivered improvement in infrastructure across
Scotland. These improvements - including modern schools and
clean hospitals - are delivering genuine benefits.
"Although this research examines the earliest PPP
projects in Scotland and some lessons have already been
incorporated into recent PPPs, we still need to learn more
about the operational stages of these long-term
contracts.
"This research will continue and will assist in the
evolution of PPP processes through increased
standardisation and greater experience. Public authorities
need to learn from the strengths of PPP and build these
into conventional procurements - for example certainty over
life-cycle maintenance arrangements.
"The research offers recommendations for the Executive
and we will, of course, examine them carefully to see how
to take forward the next stage of evaluation."
This report - carried out by Cambridge Economic Policy
Associates - summarises the results of a research project
commissioned by the Executive to:
- Provide an initial assessment of the relative costs
and benefits of Public Private Partnership (PPP)
procurement in comparison to conventional procurement,
and of the underlying causes of good and bad
performance
- Assess the potential merits of centrally collecting
additional performance monitoring information and other
data in order to inform future PPP performance
evaluations, and provide recommendations on what data
should be collected