Petition Published total cap on PFI and other contract costs

Concern has been raised within and outside government about the costs of PFI contracts, which have recently been estimated by the Guardian at £300billion. In order to put a limit on taxpayer exposure to contracts which may last for decades, every PFI or other long-term public sector contract should have a break clause (a way for the government to exit the contract by paying a fee) and the total cost of such break clauses across the public sector should be published at least annually. Publishing a total cost would remove any concerns about commercial confidentiality, which is the reason ofted cited when public sector bodies refuse to release information about break clauses.

Such a statistic would both give the public an indication of the total size of its PFI liabilities, and act as a cap on such costs.