4 The October 2005 transfer of responsibilities from the SRA to the Department involved a risk of staff departures damaging the Department's ability to perform effectively. Our review shows that, although tightly staffed, this risk has not materialised. Fourteen of the Department's 23 rail procurement staff transferred over from the SRA including key employees preparing for the South Western franchise. OGC reviews of the South Western franchise award noted that initially there was not a full complement of staff but concluded that the following stage of the procurement process was fully staffed and were complimentary about staff quality.
5 For historical reasons the number of franchises awarded each year vary. This bunching means that it is not cost effective for the Department to be staffed up to deal with peaks of work. The Department, therefore, may engage outside support, such as using inward secondees for handling the West Midlands franchise, one of the four let in 2007, as well as advisers to provide legal, technical and financial advice for each franchise. The Department is seeking to manage the forward programme to reduce peaks and troughs in letting franchises.
6 The Department has been successful in letting franchises to the timescales initially envisioned and not delaying any award - all four franchises awarded in 2007 were procured by the dates initially envisioned when the Prior Information Notices were issued.14 This was not the case for either of its predecessors, OPRAF and the SRA. Our 1996 report on rail franchising noted that OPRAF had not met the Secretary of State's target of awarding six franchises by the end of 1995; the SRA had a number of proposed franchise re-awards that were delayed or cancelled, for example the cancellation of the Central Trains re-franchising in June 2001, or the delays to the re-award of the Inter City East Coast franchise.15
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14 Prior Information Notices are issued, right at the start of the procurement process, to alert the market.
15 The reasons for these delays were not always within the control of the SRA.