§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to his answer of 5 March,Official Report, column 194W, when a decision will be made on which library facilities will benefit from the recently announced investment. [104729]
§ Angela SmithA decision should be taken before the end of 2003 on which library projects are suitable for inclusion in the Strategic Investment Programme. The facilities that actually benefit will then depend on a number of factors including the outcome of the public private partnership procurement methodology that can take a year to 18 months to complete.
329WThe Department of Culture Arts and Leisure has commissioned PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) to carry out a feasibility study to evaluate the potential for various forms of Public Private Partnership (PPP) to deliver improved value for money in library facilities when compared with more conventional procurement and to identify the forms of PPP that offer the greatest potential for improved value for money. The report is expected within a month and will help me to identify the high priority library projects that are most likely to attract private sector interest and therefore benefit from the Strategic Investment Programme. Within this programme £20 million has been identified for potential library and other information resources projects.