6 In its March 2006 publication, Strengthening Long-Term Partnerships, the Treasury put forward several proposals to improve public sector skills and procurement support and to reduce procurement timescales and costs for both the public and private sectors. These included a greater emphasis on preparation of projects before they go to the market, increased monitoring and scrutiny of projects, including a new stage of scrutiny before selection of preferred bidder, and measures to address shortages of skills in the public sector. Other measures which had already been taken to address issues of lesson learning, co-ordination and skill shortages included the creation of sector-specific programmes such as Building Schools for the Future. This programme brings together all future PFI school projects with the aim of introducing centralised programme management. Our recommendations are intended to supplement and to complement these proposals and measures, and will remain relevant in the light of the Competitive Dialogue process.