Welfare Reform Bill

The point is that if we need a three-year period to pilot something and that pilot is going to be carried out by an external provider, if we were to seek to do it in two chunks rather than under one contractual arrangement there is a risk that fewer potential providers would come forward to engage in the pilot. They will factor into the contractual terms on which they are prepared to undertake the work the prospect that the pilot might not be renewed at the end of, say, 18 months. The facility for them to have the assuredness of a three-year pilot—if that is the judgment as to the length of pilot needed to test the proposition—is a commercial benefit. That is why there is a value-for-money component.