5.27 Fixed fee contracts are commonly offered by legal, corporate finance and design advisers for PPP advice in the stages up to issue of the Invitation to Participate in Dialogue for the project and sometimes beyond. Again, this will depend on the uncertainties in the project, the degree of precision in defining advisers' responsibilities in the terms of reference and confidence in the NHSScotland body's project management team.
5.28 If a fixed fee contract is agreed the NHSScotland body should agree in depth with the advisers the level of work that they will be providing under the contract. This should be in terms of the minimum specified hours to be worked at each stage of the procurement for a given output. This will also enable a clearer comparison of bids.