2.27 The key to implementing many savings measures is that authorities understand what they are being charged and what others are paying for similar services. Departmental PFUs should consider whether they could facilitate the collection of data on the costs of various services provided under PFI contracts that they have sponsored, including small works catalogue / rate card information. If so, this should be stored in a format that is easy to use by Authorities (e.g. costs per m2, costs for new or refurbished buildings, unit costs).
2.28 There may be issues of commercial sensitivity which could preclude non-anonymised cost information being provided to PFUs or other authorities. In particular, any such information needs to be compatible with confidentiality provisions in the relevant project agreements.
2.29 Even if there does not appear to be sufficient comparability between contracts for meaningful data to be collated, all PFI contracts should be examined because there may be services within them with sufficient commonality for costs to be collated.
2.30 With respect to PFI hospitals, the Department for Health Private Finance Unit promotes sharing of knowledge between Trusts undertaking market testing / benchmarking exercises (including the headline results of such exercises in terms of cost increase/decrease). Contact with other Trusts and the engagement of in-house or external technical expertise is recommended to collect and use available external benchmarking data effectively.
2.31 The Department for Health runs ERIC - the Estates Return Information Collection, which is mandatory for NHS Trusts, but not all of it is mandatory for NHS Foundation Trusts (http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/data-collections/information-about-the-nhs- workforce-estates-and-facilities-management-collections/direct-collections/estates-and-facilities- management). Trusts enter data into the system which provides real time performance indicator information varying from on screen indicators to benchmarking charts. Many Trusts use ERIC as a starting point and then speak to other Trusts to get clarification of data.