PFI PPP Safety Audit
Dear Lancashire County Council,
This request for information is an attempt to seek reassurance about the safety of public buildings in the light of the findings revealed in the Inquiry commissioned following the collapse of a school building wall in Edinburgh and subsequent closure of 17 schools.
Please answer the following for each PFI/PPP schemes in the local authority area treating each scheme as a separate request.
Please provide all documents showing how your organisation has responded to the findings contained in the report on Edinburgh Schools Construction by John Cole: including, but not limited to memos, emails, minutes, reports.
I would like to understand the expertise and resource committed by your organisation to the management and oversight of PFI schemes from procurement through to ongoing contract operation. Please provide documents relating to the PFI Team(s) allocated to each project its makeup and structure of the team during each project phase. This may comprise terms of reference, organisation chart, post titles and role profiles.
Provide the deed of appointment for the Independent Certifier and any other documents setting out the scope of that role. Please confirm the level of indemnity insurance and liability period.
Please confirm whether your organisation employed a member of the Institute of Clerk of Works or an inspector of similar standing and assigned them to each construction site. If someone in this role was employed please confirm their level of qualification, the salary associated with this role and how much time was allocated to per project/site.
Please provide a list of all enforcement or improvement notices served; investigations carried out and reports commissioned into fire safety (include dates and specify who commissioned or issued these) Please provide copies of all items listed.
Provide details of all attempts to make deductions relating to structural defects for each project. Confirm the amount, what it was for, and when the deduction was made.0
Yours faithfully,
Megan Ingles
Dear Ms Ingles,
Request for information
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your email dated 23/05/17, in which
you request the disclosure of information.
I can confirm that your enquiry will now be assigned to an officer who
will commence a search for the information you require and they will
respond in due course. The deadline date for issuing you with full
response is 21/06/17. We will endeavour to provide a response well in
advance of this date, however, should we envisage any delays, or require
more details from you, we will contact you immediately.
If you have any queries about the above, please do not hesitate to contact
us, quoting ref. 936.782
Yours sincerely,
On Behalf of the Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
PO Box 78
County Hall
Preston
PR1 8XJ
[1][email address]
[2]www.lancashire.gov.uk
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Dear Ms Ingles,
Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
Further to your request for information, made under the provisions of the
above Act, please see below our response.
*Please be advised that much of the information is either not available or
difficult to collate given that the teams responsible for the procurement
and construction phases no longer exist. However, please see below and
attached, the information that we have been able to provide.*
• Please provide all documents showing how your organisation has
responded to the findings contained in the report on Edinburgh Schools
Construction by John Cole: including, but not limited to memos, emails,
minutes, reports.
We have had verbal confirmation that there are no issues with wall ties at
our sites as they are of a different construction method. We are currently
seeking a formal response to confirm this from the Contractor.
• I would like to understand the expertise and resource committed by your
organisation to the management and oversight of PFI schemes from
procurement through to ongoing contract operation. Please provide
documents relating to the PFI Team(s) allocated to each project its makeup
and structure of the team during each project phase. This may comprise
terms of reference, organisation chart, post titles and role profiles.
The members of the Construction and Procurement teams no longer work for
the Authority. We are unsure as to who would have the documentation on
structure. For contract operation we can confirm that the the current
resource committed is James O'Connell as the BSF contracts manager, ½ an
FTE administrative role and the project governance or 'Authority
Representative' role.
James O'Connell is the central role on the PFI schools for the past 7
years and is the only remaining member of the team from the date the
project became operational. It has been confirmed that he has substantial
experience and knowledge in managing PFI contracts.
• Provide the deed of appointment for the Independent Certifier and any
other documents setting out the scope of that role. Please confirm the
level of indemnity insurance and liability period.
Please see attached for Phase 2, 2A and 3 of the project. Although a deed
of appointment exists for Phase 1 also it would require searching through
substantial contract documents in Archives to find. In order to try and
collate the information you require, would mean that a member of staff
will need to find and collate the information you require, this would
require a manual trawl of numerous individual files. This would incur a
commitment of resources in excess of the limit of £450 set by the Freedom
of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004 (SI No. 3244 of 2004), which equates to 18 hours of work.
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act provides that a public
authority is not obliged to comply with a request where to do so would
exceed such a limit.
• Please confirm whether your organisation employed a member of the
Institute of Clerk of Works or an inspector of similar standing and
assigned them to each construction site. If someone in this role was
employed please confirm their level of qualification, the salary
associated with this role and how much time was allocated to per
project/site.
We are unable to confirm the above. This was prior to the employment of
James O'Connell and the Project Manager is no longer with the Authority.
• Please provide a list of all enforcement or improvement notices served;
investigations carried out and reports commissioned into fire safety
(include dates and specify who commissioned or issued these) Please
provide copies of all items listed.
As far as we are aware, enforcement or improvement notices were served
during construction however as stated above a large amount of work was
undertaken prior to the employment of James O'Connell. Fire Safety Reports
have been requested from the contractor. Once we are in receipt of this, a
copy shall be forwarded onto you.
Please note, fire risk assessments are also undertaken by the schools,
however this information is not held by the authority. You will need to
contact the schools direct for this information.
• Provide details of all attempts to make deductions relating to
structural defects for each project. Confirm the amount, what it was for,
and when the deduction was made.
Deductions have been levied in most months for a large number of items
since the contract began in September 2008. To go through every deduction
at every school for the past 9 years would mean a substantial amount of
work and identifying if a deduction related to a defect rather than a
service performance issue might not even be possible. In order to try and
collate the information you require, would mean that a member of staff
will need to find and collate the information you require, this would
require a manual trawl of numerous individual files. This would incur a
commitment of resources in excess of the limit of £450 set by the Freedom
of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004 (SI No. 3244 of 2004), which equates to 18 hours of work.
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act provides that a public
authority is not obliged to comply with a request where to do so would
exceed such a limit.
In the event that you wish to complain about the manner in which your
enquiry has been handled, you should write in the first instance to the
Senior Information Access Officer, Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78,
County Hall, Preston PR1 8XJ, or email
[1][Lancashire County Council request email]
If, after this stage, you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer
the matter to the Information Commissioner, whose contact details are as
follows:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Email: [2][email address]
Website: [3]http://www.ico.org.uk
Yours Sincerely,
On Behalf of the Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
[4][Lancashire County Council request email]
[5]www.lancashire.gov.uk
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