4.6 Cavendish Fluor Partnership (CFP) has progressed decommissioning work on the Magnox sites since it acquired the shares of the site licence company in September 2014. Between September 2014 and April 2017 the NDA has paid CFP £1.6 billion in costs to decommission the sites. During the attempt to consolidate the contract, CFP and the NDA failed to agree the fee that CFP should earn given the expanded scope of work. The NDA originally expected the contractor's fee to amount to around 5% of the cost of decommissioning, depending on its performance. As of 1 April 2017, CFP had been paid £55 million in fees on a provisional basis, subject to a potential revision as part of the NDA's termination agreement with CFP.
4.7 According to NDA figures, which we have not audited, expenditure under the current contract with CFP up until 1 April 2017 has been £255 million lower than what the NDA previously expected the old contracts might cost.12 Although this is indicative of the contract creating savings, some of the £255 million difference may have also come from CFP being slightly behind schedule, and lower-than-expected inflation.
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12 Specifically, CFP's costs as of 1 April 2017 were £255 million lower than the benchmark the NDA produced in June 2014 to represent what the cost of continuing the old contracts might have been.