In November 2022 the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (the IPA) invited Barry White and Andrew Fraiser to prepare an independent report on:
(1) The status of behaviours, relationships and disputes across the PFI sector, together with recommendations for how to improve them moving forward;
(2) Recent industry proposals for a "conduct charter" and an "expiry and handback resolution council"; and
(3) The extent to which negative working practices are being adopted across the PFI sector, together with the reasons why.
The IPA's commissioning of this report follows the publication of the Public Accounts Committee's (the PAC) report on "Managing the expiry of PFI contracts" in March, 2021 and the publication of law firm DLA Piper's "Project Autumn" Report in September, 2022. The PAC's report, among other things, recommended that the IPA should publish a disputes protocol. DLA Piper's report was a summary of their "Industry Consultation Report on PPP Handback and Expiry (UK)" which assessed the status of operating PFI projects in the UK and made recommendations for a way forward.
Between them, Barry White and Andrew Fraiser have more than 50 years of experience working in the UK's PFI sector. Both individually and together (as colleagues and principal/adviser) they were involved in the successful procurement and delivery of many first of their kind PFI projects across the UK. In the early 2000s, Barry and Andrew worked together at Partnerships UK, a public-private-partnership sponsored by HM Treasury that had a unique public sector mission. During that time, Barry and Andrew advised public authorities across the UK on the successful procurement of PFI projects.
Biographies of authors:
Barry White has more than 25 years' experience in infrastructure development, finance and delivery across all sectors. His roles have included Chief Executive at Transport for the North, Chief Executive at Scottish Futures Trust, Managing Director at BAM PPP UK (now Invesis), Investment Director at Skanska, Project Director at Partnerships UK and Divisional Managing Director at Morrison Construction Group. Prior to that he was an officer in the Army.
Andrew Fraiser is a solicitor in England & Wales with more than 25 years' experience advising on major infrastructure projects around the world. Between 2000 and 2002, he was seconded to Partnerships UK, where he advised on the government's standard PFI contract terms and many pathfinder PFI projects. He was a partner at Allen & Overy LLP for 10 years, before joining Ashurst LLP where, until 2021, he was Head of Infrastructure for the Americas and Global Head of Project Finance.