Calculation of Unavailability Deduction

The Unavailability mechanism for Fire & Police Accommodation PFI projects is based on dividing the accommodation into a number of discrete Areas. The Authority prioritises these Areas based on their operational importance in terms of delivering the service. The Unavailability mechanism also sets out a weighting factor for each Area that determines the relative impact on the payment to the Contractor such that an Unavailability Deduction is made from the Unitary Charge. The Output Specification sets out the Operational Hours for the different Areas within the accommodation and determines whether they require 24/7 service support or whether they operate during normal business hours. If the Area is required on a 24/7 basis and there is a two hour rectification period with regards availability, the Contractor can fail to meet the availability requirement up to 12 times in a 24 hour period. Alternatively if an Area has an 8 hour rectification period in terms of its operational use then the exposure would be limited to a maximum of 3 potential instances of failure in any 24 hour period. This ensures that the deduction calculation stays fixed for the accommodation whilst recognising the criticality and potential level of exposure may need to vary across different Areas within the accommodation.