8 Ipsos MORI conducted an online survey of non-PFI construction project teams across England, between 1 November 2008 and 31 March 2009. The survey was used to collect information on the performance of non-PFI construction projects to timetable and price.
9 The survey was sent to all projects identified as being within the defined non-PFI population. Our non-PFI population was defined as all English public sector construction projects, excluding PFI, which were due to be completed between 1 January 2003 and 31 August 2008, with a capital value of £20 million. Public sector construction projects were identified from a list of projects supplied by Glenigan, which collects project information from planning applications. The resulting population included 225 projects.
10 The survey was completed by 50 respondents. Around half of these were completed online, and the remainder completed a shorter telephone survey. This mixed method approach was used due to a poor response rate to the initial online survey. The NAO experienced difficulty in identifying project team contact details and therefore MORI's in-house telephone interviewers were employed to identify the correct contacts and interview them by telephone.
11 The number of respondents varies between questions as the number of respondents stating 'don't know' to the key questions varies. In particular, just 49 were able to provide information on delivery to timetable and 41 for delivery to price. This represents response rates of 22 and 18 per cent which is taken into account in the wide confidence intervals presented with statistics.
12 Survey respondents covered a variety of sectors, though educational facilities and housing projects dominate (Figure 18 overleaf).