3.16 During competitive bidding, many Authorities requested designs to a certain level of detail (e.g. drawings at a scale of 1:200) and then later requested a detailed design (1:50) after selecting a preferred bidder. Authorities had to consider the interests of internal and external stakeholders as detailed designs were being developed by the preferred bidder. This took time and sometimes revealed issues leading to changes that were not apparent at the less detailed level, when bidders were in competition with one another. There could be benefits to procuring authorities of requesting selected 1:50 information prior to the preferred bidder decision, thus highlighting at an earlier stage any issues that might be raised by stakeholders, although these would have to be balanced against the cost to bidders. It may be that this will have to happen in any case under the new Competitive Dialogue rules. Separately, the Treasury and the Department of Health are currently exploring the possibility of a greater amount of design work being completed earlier, perhaps by authorities, before projects go to the market.