Q121 Mr Bacon: The second thing is the consultants, which Mr Touhig has already mentioned. The first one is where it says "Design and construction". There was no construction, was there? That is correct?
Sir David Normington: Yes, but they had done a lot of preparation.
Q122 Mr Bacon: They did a little one with matchsticks? It is a computer model, is it not-or could you touch it and feel it, stand over it and look at it?
Sir David Normington: We had had to apply for and had got outline planning permission and-
Q123 Mr Bacon: Is this a computer model?
Sir David Normington: Yes.
Q124 Mr Bacon: Or is it actually a physical thing that you can touch and feel?
Sir David Normington: No, of course not.
Q125 Mr Bacon: So there was no construction?
Sir David Normington: There was no construction on the site.
Q126 Mr Bacon: All I am trying to get to is where it says "Design and construction", what it actually means is "design". I could scrub out the words "and construction" and it would not be inaccurate.
Sir David Normington: No, you cannot.
Ms Homer: The firm did produce some pilot, modular buildings to full size, to test the theory. They had done some construction as part of the preparation for going live on site. That is why the reference is there to "construction".
Q127 Mr Bacon: This £7.559 million that was for "Design and construction", that all went to GSL, did it?
Ms Homer: Yes.
Q128 Mr Bacon: The "Termination payment" of £7.9 million-how was that calculated? Was it in the contract at the beginning, the one that was let, that there should be a fixed percentage of the total? Why is it £7.926 million?
Sir David Normington: I will ask Lin Homer to give you a bit more detail, but I will just say two things about it. First of all-and I did make this point before-if planning permission had been turned down, that had already been built into the contract. When the contract was signed, there was a clause about what would happen if planning permission was not granted. It was granted, and then there was a cancellation fee-which this is. There was quite a negotiation about the cancellation fee at the time, which was partly to do with what costs had been incurred. My recollection is that the Home Office offered £6.1 million to begin with and then, in negotiation that followed, it went to £7.5 million.
Q129 Mr Bacon: When you say "what costs had been incurred", they had already been paid, or were paid in the end, £7.559 million to recompense them for the work they had done and the cost that had been incurred there-already, separately from the subsequent £7.9 million compensation for the cancellation.
Sir David Normington: Yes, but, as you know, in projects of this sort they have to assemble their team. A lot of work had been done preparing for it to go.
Q130 Mr Bacon: How many staff worked on this from GSL?
Sir David Normington: I am afraid I do not know that.