5 We conducted a census of all of the Department's PFI projects that are currently running, in order to place findings from the case studies in a wider context and to gather further data on the PFI portfolio as a whole, in addition to information available via the Department's own database of PFI projects and also Treasury and Partnerships UK databases. The questionnaire, which was agreed with the Private Finance Unit, sought factual information about the projects and project teams' views on a number of issues related to the management of PFI projects. These included:
■ Project management
■ Relationships and partnership working
■ Performance management
■ Risk allocation and management
■ Value for money
6 In order to define the population, a list of operational projects was agreed with the Private Finance Unit. The population was defined as:
■ all contracts that had reached financial close at the time the census was conducted; and
■ were currently operational (e.g. had not been subsumed under another contract, or reached the end of the contract term).
7 This approach led to the identification of a population of 47 projects. Given the relatively small size and heterogeneous nature of the population, a census was appropriate. Questionnaires were issued to all projects in April 2007.
8 In total, 41 out of 47 projects provided a valid response, giving a total achieved response rate of 87 per cent. Some projects said they faced problems in responding to part or all of the census as staff who had developed the projects were no longer in post and this made it difficult to answer questions relating to earlier periods. Results in this report are the actual total of responses from the achieved sample of 41 respondents.
9 The census was closed after consultation with the Private Finance Unit in July 2007. Where a response was received, we also carried out a short survey of private sector contractors, with 22 contractors responding. The details of the private and public sector projects teams who responded are identified in the data table in figure 6.