2.9 In line with best practice for privately financed projects, GCHQ aimed to specify the services it required from bidders, rather than how these services should be delivered. This approach allowed bidders more scope to decide how best to meet GCHQ's accommodation requirements.
2.10 The Invitation to Tender specified that the building should accommodate 3,750 workplaces and be within a ten mile radius of Cheltenham. There was a strong emphasis on flexibility to deal with changes in GCHQ's business needs, due to uncertainties about future intelligence and information technology requirements. This was the first PFI deal to provide Information Technology infrastructure together with serviced accommodation. GCHQ's business is heavily dependent on Information Technology and telecommunications, so these areas of the invitation to tender were more heavily specified than in most PFI building deals.
2.11 All bidders told us that there had been sufficient scope for them to provide innovative designs and to choose the appropriate site to meet GCHQ's requirements. They said that the invitation to tender had been well specified in output terms. Bidders also told us they accepted the need for more specification in technical areas due to the unique nature of GCHQ's business. They designed their bids to accommodate these needs, and all considered that they had developed workable solutions to the building design.