§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many civilians are employed in connection with MoD PFI programmes. [50789]
§ Mr. IngramThere is a small central team with 15 civilian personnel that is responsible for developing policy and best practice for the Ministry of Defence's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) programme and other types of Public Private Partnership. The central team is supported by smaller teams within the Defence Procurement Agency, Defence Logistics Organisation and other management areas, which are responsible for managing the programmes within their own areas.
The management and delivery of the PFI programme also involves managers, both military and civilian, at all levels as members of project boards, scrutiny and approving authorities, commercial advisers and customer representatives. MOD legal and finance staffs are also involved, although they usually do not work on PFI programmes full-time.
PFI projects are run by dedicated integrated project teams, the size of which varies with the size of the project and the stage it has reached in the procurement cycle. The teams can include civilian and military personnel, as well as industry representatives. External consultants may be engaged by project teams. A small number also sit on project boards.
Once contracts have been signed, they are monitored and are managed by MOD personnel, both civilian and military depending on the services concerned. But contractors' personnel deliver the services themselves and it is up to the contractors to determine the size of the civilian workforce necessary to meet our requirements.
A substantial number of civilians within and outside the MOD is employed on MOD PFI programmes, full and part-time, in a variety of roles. Information on the number of civilians employed in managing and delivering the programme and individual projects is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.