3.28 Where departments have the right to approve a refinancing proposal, this will place them in a strong negotiating position. They should not, however, unreasonably withhold their consent. If, for example, a department only has the right to approve a refinancing where its termination liabilities increase, it should not use the threat of withholding this consent unreasonably to negotiate on other aspects of the refinancing proposal. An exception to this might be where the consortium has itself attempted to reopen other aspects of the contract.
3.29 Where a department has broader contractual rights to negotiate a share in the benefits of a refinancing, then it should seek to negotiate the best possible deal without jeopardising its long term relationship with the consortium. This should help departments share in a higher proportion of the refinancing benefits than did the Prison Service – who lacked such broad contractual rights and could only negotiate over certain aspects of the refinancing – in the case of Fazakerley.