§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will estimate the cost of advisers to the public sector for private finance initiative projects in schools, as a proportion of the value of the contracts. [128588]
§ Jacqui SmithThe Department is not directly responsible for the procurement of schools PFI contracts, and therefore does not hold comprehensive information about the costs of external advice. The Department provides financial assistance towards such costs, which is supplemented by project sponsors from their own resources. Experience to date shows that the cost of external advisers for schools PFI projects varies according to the size of scheme and the internal expertise available to project sponsors. External fee costs for large projects involving many schools are typically 1 per cent. or less of total contract costs.