3  Unavailability Deductions

The Unavailability mechanism forms a key part of the payment mechanism and is designed specifically to support the delivery of the service to the required standards.  The mechanism ensures that where part of the Service is Unavailable, a commensurate deduction is made from the payment to make the Contractor take action to restore the Service. In terms of achieving this however there are a number of mechanisms available to the Contractor to mitigate against the impact of any deduction. These include providing alternative accommodation, rectification periods before the deduction from the payment applies and receiving 50% of the payment if the accommodation is Unavailable but used. Similarly the Authority has mechanisms for escalating the deductions if the same areas of the accommodation are repeatedly Unavailable, or a certain proportion of the core accommodation is Unavailable, thereby rendering the rest of the accommodation redundant until Availability is restored.

The deductions for Unavailability are based on specific parts of the accommodation being Unavailable. These are referred to as Areas in this schedule, being the rooms or space within the accommodation that is described within the Room Data Sheets in the Output Specification. Areas therefore represent a discrete part of the accommodation that can be allocated weightings for the purpose of calculating Unavailability Deductions.

The weightings that are allocated to Areas will provide an indication of their importance within the accommodation. For example Appliance Bays or Custody Suites in a Fire or Police Station respectively may have a high weighting factor of 30. Other important Areas within the accommodation may have a lesser weighting but still form an important part of the operation of the accommodation. For this purpose a number of Areas with different weighting factors may be grouped to form a Zone. For example Appliance Bays, Communications Rooms and Breathing Apparatus Cleaning Rooms within a station may be grouped to become Zone 1, representing the most important parts of the accommodation. These groupings are important when a few Areas within the Zone become Unavailable and result in the whole of the Zone being deemed Unavailable.

The decision tree that follows shows the key relationships between the different elements of the Unavailability mechanism that apply when considering whether deductions for Unavailability should apply.