§ Lord Graham of Edmontonasked Her Majesty's Government:
When they expect to announce the preferred bidder for the Private Finance Initiative contract for the British Embassy in Berlin.
§ Baroness Symons of Vernham DeanThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office have selected Bebcon, a consortium of prominent German contractors and 185WA financiers, as the preferred bidder for the new British Embassy offices in Berlin.
The Embassy will be built to a design by Michael Wilford and Partners, winners of the 1995 Embassy Design Competition, on the site of the pre-war British Embassy in Wilhelmstrasse. Under the eventual contract, Bebcon will finance, construct and then manage the building for 30 years. Building work will start around the end of this year, and the Embassy staff will move into the new building in autumn 1999.
This is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's pathfinder Private Finance Initiative overseas estate project. EU competition procedures and British Government Private Finance Initiative (PFI) guidance have been followed throughout.