The Government is also putting in place specific measures to improve PF2 procurement to ensure it is faster and cheaper going forward, without sacrificing quality and competitiveness:
• the Government will require departmental ministers to commit to an ambitious procurement timetable when PF2 business cases are submitted to the Treasury for approval. The competitive tendering phase of PF2 projects, measured from the issuance of project tender to the appointment of a preferred bidder, will not be allowed to take longer than 18 months. After this point, funding will not be approved by Treasury unless an exemption to the commitment had been granted by the Chief Secretary;
• to streamline further the procurement process, a comprehensive suite of new standard documentation will be launched. This will include new procurement and contract guidance, a standard shareholders' agreement, a standard facilities management service output specification and a pro-forma payment mechanism for accommodation projects. The Government will also introduce a new standardised and efficient approach to running PF2 procurement following the Government's Lean Sourcing principles; and
• to ensure that projects do not go to market before they are fully prepared, additional Treasury checks will be introduced as part of the Treasury business case approval point to scrutinise project preparation prior to issuing project tenders.