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• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Sir Roy, how much of the £500 million construction contingency has so far been earmarked to be spent? There has been a lot of talk about this and a lot of rumours in the industry.

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

My only point really on this is that it is in that area where costs can so easily run away. In the industry, there are rumours; you speak to any of the major contractors or the journalists in the area, and they will tell you that £350 million of the £500 million has so far been earmarked, and that insiders within the ODA have told them this.

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

So it will not go to CLM (CH2M Hill International, Laing O'Rourke, Mace)? They will not be the people who will do it?

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

The fact that so few people appear to have tendered for the Aquatic Centre does that not concern you in terms of possibilities?

• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

So if that £500 million contingency can last up to the end of next year, then how much more of the overall contingency budget that the Government has aside, which has been the cause of so much controversy, do you think you will need?

• 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: 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.

• Reference: 2007/0026-1
• Question by: Damian Hockney
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Can you guarantee that there will be no further increase in the ODA budget announced by Tessa Jowell in March?