There may be instances, where it is desirable for government to fix the service charges for a shorter term, say, five years (with, for example, contracts for soft services) with subsequent increases to the price after this period on benchmarking or market testing. This will ensure that the service charges under the contract do not become seriously out of kilter with the current state of the market. Alternatively, contracts may be awarded for a significantly shorter term, so that they are effectively put to the market at regular (and comparatively short) intervals.