20 As a substantial part of its operations would be transferred to the private sector, senior National Savings' management committed a large amount of time to planning the project. Bidders were consulted to establish the likely benefits from a partnership and how the procurement could best be implemented. To maximise the potential for efficiencies, National Savings agreed that the operational service should be transferred as a single package to a single private sector provider under a long-term contract.
21 To protect itself from being reliant on a single partner in a long-term contract, National Savings sought firm prices for each year of the contract, depending on forecast transaction volumes. During the life of the contract, costs and quality would be benchmarked at regular intervals with the outcomes limited to downward only price movements and/or improvements in quality of service. In addition, National Savings required a partner to share equally any higher than expected profits.