4.25 Technical Transition includes projects, largely asset creating, covered by the agreed budget of £308 million for the period to 2004-05, the costs of retaining accommodation at Oakley up to 2011-12 and GCHQ's technical manpower costs. GCHQ has said it would be reliant on the availability of its technical manpower to help keep the project within the £308 million budget. This requirement was estimated at 978 man-years of effort by the technical review team in late 1999.
4.26 GCHQ monitored this staff effort as part of its overall business plan. This is built up according to the relative priorities of the competing demands on its manpower. Until the recent introduction of time recording, GCHQ has not monitored actual in-house effort on technical transition but it expects it to come within the 978 man-years estimate.
4.27 GCHQ has said that it monitors all technical and non-technical transition costs and payments to IAS. These details are reported to its New Accommodation Programme Sponsoring Group every two months and are made available to HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office.