Private Finance Initiative (PFI) / Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements have become a main means of funding infrastructure projects domestically and internationally. They range from schools and hospitals through to major sporting events (for example the Olympics) to motorways and bridges. Members of Keating Chambers have been involved in PFI and PPP from the outset as counsel, adjudicators and arbitrators.
Types of dispute
The range of PFI/PPP projects has been vast. The projects that members of Chambers have been involved in stretch across: bridges and tunnels, waste to energy facilities, power stations, roads, electrical supplies, street lighting and furniture, heavy and light rail, renewables, schools, hospitals, IT, defence and national security, urban regeneration, sports facilities, waste disposal, recycling and processing. Most of these remain live projects with live disputes and will be so for at least a decade.
Our members’ expertise includes acting for employers, project companies, joint ventures, and special purpose vehicles, construction contractors and sub-contractors, facilities management contractors and sub-contractors, public authorities, stakeholders and lenders. Barristers at Keating Chambers have also been actively involved in advising on the structures for the next generation of PFI/PPP projects.
PFI/PPP projects pose a number of legal challenges. These range from technical and engineering though to the complicated financial arrangements. Some examples of the types of challenges that can arise are:
- Procurement of the project
- Is the asset reaching the appropriate level of design, construction and operation required?
- Are there any of the common issues associated with PFI at present (e.g. fire stopping, water systems, cladding, air controls and BME)? And if so, how are they to be managed?
- Are the deductions and performance monitoring systems being properly operated?
- How is lifecycle replacement and maintenance being handled?
- Are there Limitation and standstill issues?
- Has the project been terminated or is it about to be so? If so, what happens?
- How do the equity tranches and the financial model operate?
- How are equity stakeholders going to be reimbursed?
- What will happen at the end of the PFI/PPP arrangement – aka ‘Handback’?
Barristers at Keating Chambers have detailed and extensive experience in all of these areas dating from the early 1990’s. Our members are well placed to act as counsel, adjudicators and arbitrators and have unique insight into how projects may be let in future.
