The development of the Performance Specification can be phased to reflect the various stages of the P3 procurement process. An outline Specification could be produced at the business case stage to provide a guide to key principles, objectives and requirements of the project, and should reflect the outcome of any market-soundings. It can then be further developed once the project has been approved as a P3.
It is worth developing the Performance Specification further for issue in draft form as part of the pre-qualification stage of the procurement process. This gives confidence to the bidders that the government is committed and knows what it is doing, as well as determining issues in advance of the ITP. The level of detail at this stage may be less, so that the authority can take account of ideas generated during the short-listing process.
The detailed Performance Specifications must be issued as part of the RFP. It can be expected that the content will be modified following issue of the RFP documents based on clarifications and questions received from proponents. However, the overall form and approach must not change significantly because of the need for fair and transparent competition.