3.20 Good programme management includes systematic review to learn lessons and encourage continuous improvement. In 2002, when PFI was largely used to achieve Decent Homes standards, the Department carried out an internal evaluation of whether it was on track to meet its Public Service Agreement target to make all homes decent by 2010. The review found that under PFI, procurement had taken far longer than expected and required greater than expected central funding. The Department told us it has followed up on all the resulting recommendations.
3.21 The Department has also commissioned some discrete exercises to learn lessons from the programme. In 2003, PA Consulting undertook a review of the pathfinder projects. The review noted that projects had suffered significant delays and attempted to establish a baseline position against which future projects could be measured. The Department also undertook the benchmarking exercise discussed in Part two. There has, however, to date, been no overall evaluation exercise drawing on the experience of using PFI in housing over 12 years, including formal assessment of the different uses of PFI and how effective they have been although lessons learnt from older projects have been incorporated into the current procurement approach and guidance.