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• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Finally, given that you have milestones and key milestones and a set date to achieve it, would it not have been better to have set up bonus payments rather than contingency sums, given that is going to be the name of the game - getting to key stages at key times at critical points? Clearly we would rather be giving them money for achieving that, rather than spending their time making those claims, which invariably half the building trade does.

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Sir Roy, if we accept the Government figures as the upper limits to the expenditure on the Olympics, I think the key thing is the management of the contingencies. I am worried that we find ourselves in contracts with contractors who then spend most of their time making claims for the contingencies. They are very generous; about 60% of the build costs. I have certainly had that experience of managing projects myself. What do you have lined up in the procurement arrangements with contractors which make sure they focus and achieve the milestones, rather than putting in the estimators to...

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Obviously you have not given us figures so, to a certain extent, we have got to conjecture what they are but, say, the cost of the Stadium in your budget is £250 million - I do not know if that figure is correct or not - and then you discover that, lo and behold, now £300 million is the true cost. Does that extra £50 million come from the contingency? What happens about that?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

I have a couple of questions and the first follows very neatly off the back of Murad Qureshi's question. I think a lot of Londoners have followed the different stories of the development of Heathrow Terminal 5 on the one hand, and Wembley Stadium on the other hand. Would you say your method of procurement, and within that the management of contingency and risk, is closer to one or the other?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

So is that procedure set up or is it to be determined?

• Question by: Murad Qureshi
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

You have mentioned the Cabinet Committees that are keeping an eye on this. Surely the building contract and the legality of that will supersede anything that they can decide about which contingency sums can be drawn from or not.

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Sir Roy , what I am trying to get at is how does the contingency fund work to fund specific projects?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

So the process will be that you would have to make an application, and that application would be considered in the due fullness of time. Or is there a time period in which that should be addressed?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Which one?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

OK. You have this series of different projects, all with their own budgets within the overall budget, and you are going to put a series of contracts out to tender. Supposing, on the first one of those, you have a budget that says it is £250 million, but the cheapest cost comes in at £300 million. Does that mean the £50 million will come from the contingency fund, or does it have a knock on effect on the other budgets?