16. The PPP Agreements provide for a Periodic Review to take place every 7½ years (ie there are three reviews during the 30-year contract term). London Underground is only able to make changes to its requirements at Periodic Review (or for affordability reasons at Extraordinary Reviews). As part of the current Periodic Review of Tube Lines' PPP Agreement, London Underground has introduced changes in its requirements, and also proposed modification of other contractual terms (for example in relation to asset management systems). However, Tube Lines has contended that some of these changes go beyond the scope of changes which can be made under the contract.
17. The PPP Agreements provide that some of the contentions made in the context of a Periodic Review must be referred to me, and that others must be referred to an adjudicator. This potentially creates unhelpful timing issues, and potentially a conflict of jurisdictions. Similarly, the fact that some cost changes are subject to a contractual claims process and could in principle also be part of an Extraordinary Review highlights the difficulties of running two different change and appeal mechanisms in parallel.