Breaking new ground...
Financial models are an essential part of Public Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts – they contain the detailed financial information relating to the contract, including details of projected expenditure and profit. While it is increasingly common to see PFI contracts being put into the public domain through FOI, financial models have, to date, rarely been disclosed.
The Commissioner's first decision on financial models was issued in August 2009. The case involved a request by the trade union Unison for a copy of the PFI contract for the privately run Kilmarnock Prison. The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) published information about the contract, but withheld the financial model, arguing that release would harm the contractor's commercial interests by revealing detailed information about how the contract price was calculated.
Considering the case, the Commissioner rejected the SPS's arguments. He noted that the model was now ten years old, and that the PFI regime had changed considerably in the interim. As a result, he found that release would be unlikely to cause the harm predicted, and ordered release.
