3 The National Audit Office has acquired recent relevant experience on the following Private Finance Initiative deals for Information Technology services:
■ The Immigration and Nationality Directorate's Casework Programme (March 1999);
■ The Passport Delays of 1999 (October 1999).
These examinations provide an understanding of the issues that government purchasers faced in taking forward ground-breaking private finance deals, contemporaneously with the Benefits Payment Card. Further National Audit Office studies of other such deals are in progress.
4 We also had regard to guidance on Private Finance Information Technology projects that emerged from HM Treasury while we drafted our report.
5 Authoritative publications on best practice in risk management that we consulted included:
■ "Management of Risk": Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (1994);
■ "Management of Risk: Case Study 1: Implementing a systematic process for the management of risk across an organisation": Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (1994);
■ "Risk Management: Guidance note": HM Treasury (1994);
■ the PRINCE 2 Project Management handbook.