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School Building Programme

Answer

Over recent years the funding made available by Government to the Department of Education for the schools estate has increased substantially. The Department, in conjunction with its education partners, has 146 major capital schemes under development. The Department is using both conventional and public-private partnership (PPP) procurement routes to deliver those projects. With such a high volume of projects in planning, delays have been encountered in some projects, both under conventional and PPP procurement, due to site issues, uncertainty over long-term enrolments and advancing policy in the area of PPP procurement. The Department is currently working with school authorities to expedite progress and overcome the delays experienced.Details of those projects that have been delayed, together with their procurement route and the reason for delay, are shown on the following tables.

Details of conventional capital projects that have been delayed
Details of conventional capital projects that have been delayed	Project	Announced	Reason for delay
St. Clares/St. Colman’s Primary Schools, Newry	2000	Problems with acquiring a suitable site and issues with Roads Service, together with a review and reduction of the long-term enrolment (LTE) figure have caused delays in the project.
St. Eugene’s Primary School, Londonderry	2002	Difficulty in finding a suitable site to decant to while extension/refurbishment works are ongoing has caused delay.
Drumragh Integrated College, Omagh	2002	Problems in satisfying the Planning Service and Roads Service requirements has resulted in the need to purchase third party land to provide acceptable site lines. This has caused delay in progressing the scheme.
East Lisburn Primary Schools	2003	Site acquisition and Planning Service/Roads Service issues have caused delay.
Suffolk Primary School, Belfast	2003	The initial plans for the new school were to an incorrect specification. The enrolments at the school have fallen and as a result the requirements of the scheme have to be reviewed.
St. Teresa’s Primary School, Lurgan	2003	Difficulties in acquiring a site have caused delay.
St. Joseph’s Primary School, Newry	2003	Planning has been suspended while the enrolment position is reviewed.
St. Patrick’s Primary School, Saul	2003	Difficulty in obtaining Planning Office and Roads Service approval.
Holy Family Primary School, Magherafelt	2003	Issues relating to the site and appropriate positioning of school on site have caused delay.

Details of PPP projects that have been delayed
Details of PPP projects that have been delayed	Project	Announced	Reason for delay
Holy Cross College, Strabane	2001	The need to review and agree an appropriate long-term enrolment (LTE) caused delay. Further delay was caused while a decision on the treatment of ancillary services (such as cleaning) was awaited. The Secretary of State has now decided that cleaning services should be excluded from the contract and remain with the public sector. The Department is currently considering representation from the Trustees concerning the removal of cleaning from the contract.
Bangor Academy and Sixth Form College	2001	The need to review and agree an appropriate LTE caused delay. Further delay was caused while a decision on the treatment of ancillary services (such as cleaning) was awaited. The Secretary of State has now decided that cleaning services should be excluded from the contract and remain with the public sector. The Department is currently considering representations from school authorities concerning the removal of cleaning from the contract.
Derry Diocesan PPP Project	2001	Problems in acquiring a suitable site for one of the schools, and achieving agreement on the use of that site, caused delay. This has now been overcome and the project is at Invitation to Negotiate1 stage.
Coleraine College	2001	The removal of schools from the project due to falling enrolments and the need for the North Eastern education and library board to examine the overall requirement for secondary provision in the area has caused delay.
Lagan College/Tor Bank Special School	2002	Problems in agreeing a lease with the National Trust (Lagan College occupies a NT site) on the use and maintenance of the site have caused delay. These problems have now been overcome and the project is at Invitation to Negotiate1 stage.
Down and Connor/De La Salle PPP Project	2002	Change in the scope of the project for two of the schools involved from extension refurbishment to new build has caused delay. This has now been resolved and the project is at Invitation to Negotiate1 stage.
Belfast Strategic Partnering Project	2003	A change in the scope of the project and the need to redraft project documentation to take account of new procurement methods has caused delay. This project is now at Invitation to Negotiate1 stage.
1 Invitation to Negotiate is a stage in the procurement procedure under which the client invites a selected number of tenderers to negotiate the terms of a public-private partnerships contract.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

70558; 446 c1017-20W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Northern Ireland Schools

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk