Chamber and committees

Thank you. I am conscious of the time and I know that two other members of the committee want to come in with some questions. I will turn to the deputy convener first and then I will bring Mr Simpson in.

I am sorry to repeat myself, but I presume that you are the accountable officer who is responsible for the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of processes including these and their outcomes.

I am struggling a little bit to understand why you could not have got the Serco staff on to those superior terms and conditions at a much earlier point. Why are they having to wait until December?

We will now move into the second half of this morning’s session. Mr Reekie and Ms Alexander, we may come to you with some questions that we would like you to answer. My first question, though, will be targeted at Mr Rennick. As I understand it, eight PFI projects within the education and justice division are due to end before 2030. This came up when Willie Coffey was asking you questions in relation to HMP Kilmarnock. Do any of those contracts have exit fees attached to them?

Thank you.

Do you, from your horizon scanning, have any information that you can share about when you expect a particular surge in the number of PFI contracts reaching their expiry dates? Are you confident that we have the capacity to deal with any years in which there might be a particularly high volume?

That is helpful. Could you clarify what purpose is served by an exit fee? We have learned this morning that there was not one in the case of Kilmarnock prison. Why on some contracts are there exit fees? Why would you negotiate an exit fee?

Okay, that is fine.

Unfortunately, Graham Simpson’s intervention means that everyone else now wants to come back in. I am going to make this the very final question. Willie Coffey started it all, so I am going to invite Willie to ask the very last question in this morning’s session.

Mr Rennick, do you want a final word?

Before we finish, Graham Simpson has one other question about the mutual investment model.