5.1 The PFI contract with IAS was signed on 22nd June 2000. The key elements are summarised in Figure 9 overleaf. This deal for new serviced accommodation has features that are in line with those for headquarter accommodation for other Government departments. GCHQ has one of the largest computer complexes in Europe, includes a wide range of laboratories and uses Information Technology much more intensively than other Government departments. To accommodate GCHQ's specific requirements, the new building naturally exhibits radical differences from most other office building projects in design and provision of infrastructure.
5.2 The deal between GCHQ and IAS follows the principle, important if value for money is to be achieved, of allocating risks to the party best able to manage them. As noted earlier, in accordance with that principle, GCHQ is responsible for managing technical transition.
5.3 The deal offers the potential advantages of private sector experience and disciplines in delivering the building on time and of allocating key risks to a party better able and incentivised to manage them. Like all such deals, however, it also ties GCHQ into a long term contract of some 30 years' financial commitments. With technical transition it forms part of an overall programme for moving the entire business, over a period, to modern facilities.