2.21 Public bodies often do not have the in-house capability or expertise to effectively manage and identify savings from complex PFI contracts. The long-term nature of PFI contracts means that, in some cases, the officials who negotiated the deals have moved on, resulting in a loss of expertise - 85% of PFI payments in 2016-17 relate to procurement decisions made over 10 years ago and 42% relate to decisions made over 15 years ago. Also, because there are very few new PFI and PF2 deals in procurement, departmental private finance units, and the PPP teams located within HM Treasury and IPA are much smaller than they were in the past.
2.22 Our survey found that 8 out of 11 departments had engaged external consultants to help find savings. Some health trusts have used consultants who are paid a proportion of the savings 'identified', even though these savings are very difficult to deliver in practice. There is no centralised coordination of efforts to make savings - NHS trusts are free to engage with different consultancy firms for savings advice. This may reduce the chance that lessons can be learned and shared across the public sector. However the Department of Health and Social Care does run PFI forums for NHS trusts with input from PFI experts from the IPA. Local Partnerships, which is jointly owned by HM Treasury and the Local Government Association, has also worked with a number of public sector bodies seeking to make savings. Public bodies are not obliged to use Local Partnerships and also may not have resources available to pay for this service.