The Government is to create a new one billion pound private sector-led body to help increase and improve investment in the UK’s public services from private sources. Partnerships UK will employ City experts to help the public sector get the best deal from the Private Finance Initiative and other forms of public-private partnerships. Partnerships UK will act as a project manager for PFI deals, providing public sector organisations – from Whitehall departments to local education authorities – with expert advisory and implementation skills. The move to set up the company follows from recommendations made by Sir Malcolm Bates in his second report on the PFI.

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A new Office of Government Commerce is being set up as part of a shake up in how Whitehall goes about managing its £13 billion a year procurement budget. The main task of the Office will be to maximise the Government’s buying power. It will deliver over £1 billion of efficiency savings over the next three years while cutting project delays and overruns. Driving procurement from the centre is the major finding from a review, headed by Peter Gershon, Managing Director of Marconi Electronic Systems Ltd.

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Campaign, (UK), Jan 1999. Start page: 10. No of pages: 1

Reports on how the UK’s Labour Government has increased expenditure on advertising since it took office in 1997. Looks at where the 30% increase has been spent and notices a trend away from trade, industry and crime prevention towards ‘social exclusion’ related issues. Examines the links between Labour ministers and the advertising industry and suggests that Labour’s positive attitude to advertising has brought about a change in the way Government promotes initiatives and programmes. Notes that some observers see the increase in advertising expenditure as a continuation of trends that began with the previous Conservative Government.

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