The clarity of PFI contracts remains an important issue. 37% of managers surveyed refer to their contract at least once a week, 32% at least once a month and 24% at least once every three months 75% of those surveyed felt that it was reasonably accurate in the services it specified.
Last year, we considered the value of an easy read version of contracts. There seems to be no change in this area, with only 21% of managers having access to an easy read version. When asked what improvements they felt public sector PFI contract managers could benefit from, however, over 20% of respondents suggested clearer contracts. Our conclusion remains the same. Greater clarity on the page could reap benefits on the ground. Only 15% of contracts, for example, have experienced no variations, while 16% have seen over 100. Clearer contracts cannot guard against the most frequent cause of variation (capturing new requirements of the public sector client, 62%), but they can help reduce the 13% of problems caused by correcting mistakes in the original version.