5 In the original deal, significant public sector assets were transferred to the private sector more than a year before the planned completion of the external financing of the project. The effect of this, when the financing could not be completed, was that the assets could be recovered by the Department only with the added encumbrance of the private sector debts which had been raised by LCR. If a department proposes to depart from the normal practice in Public Private Partnerships of transferring assets only when all finance has been raised, then it needs to think through its approach to managing the increased risks it thereby incurs.