The standard terms and conditions should be used

2.11  Departments should also ensure that the contract terms and conditions agreed with the contractor follow standard contract terms. Many sectors of the PFI market now have some form of standard contract and project agreements should only vary from these when it is unavoidable. The advantage of using a standard contract is that, as the terms have already proved to be acceptable, it should be straight forward to run a funding competition based on such terms. A further advantage of using standard contracts is that they should lead to a reduction in advisers' fees whilst the project agreement is being negotiated and a faster time to financial close. Public sector project managers who find themselves negotiating in a sector that does not have a specific standard contract should always use the Office of Government Commerce's guidance on standard PFI contract terms as a starting point.