10.3.1 Whilst availability should only be recognised from the time that the Service is actually available, further consideration may be appropriate as regards whether the Contract should specify the performance regime to apply in full from the Service Commencement Date.157 In some projects, such as prisons, it is recognised that issues are inevitable in the bedding-in period, and the Contractor can be afforded a degree of flexibility. In other projects, such as roads (where the safety element is crucial), it is essential that the Contractor ensures there are no settling in problems, and the Authority requires the full performance regime from day one,158 even if the road is opened in phases.
10.3.2 One approach which gives flexibility in the bedding-in period is to allow the Contractor to accrue a higher number of performance points during that period before financial penalties are triggered than is allowed during the remainder of the Contract. Some Contracts (e.g. where the Service involves a relocation from existing facilities into new facilities) have alternatively made successful use of a regime where the Contractors are allowed a 3 to 6 month bedding-in period. During this time, monitoring takes place, but any financial deductions imposed on the Contractor for poor performance are set at a lower level than is the case once operations are fully established (but, in such cases, this does not affect the Authority's rights to terminate for Contractor Default).159 A third approach is to award performance points at the normal Contractual rate so that the Authority only pays for the Services which it receives but to apply a more lenient mechanism in counting the points which trigger the right to terminate for Contractor Default.
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157 This will be more complicated where the Project has more than one Service Commencement Date (see Section 3.6 (Acceptance and Service Commencement)).
158 See also Section 3.6 (Acceptance and Service Commencement).
159 See Section 3.7.4 (Existing Services).