2.1 The deal with RAI in 1993 was one of the very first PFI deals signed. At the time there was no guidance available to the Armouries and the Department on how to structure such deals nor was there much experience within government and in the private sector. This Part therefore examines whether current guidance on good practice on PFI deals would have strengthened the Armouries' and the Department's position in coping with RAI's financial problems and the threat which these posed to the museum's continued operation.
2.2 Since the signing of this deal in December 1993 the PFI has developed greatly. Many more such contracts have been signed and there is a large body of guidance now available to public bodies who want to enter into such deals.3 Consequently this Part shows that developments in the PFI have made a similar outcome on other PFI projects less likely and that compliance with guidance now available appears to us likely to have enabled the Armouries to tackle more easily the problems on this project and at an earlier stage. In our opinion this earlier intervention may have opened up more opportunities for saving the deal as options which were not considered to have been feasible in 1999 may have been in 1997.
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3 Responsibility for the production of this guidance transferred from the Treasury's Private Finance Taskforce to the Office of Government Commerce in April 2000.