Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
Set out plans for building and retaining public sector infrastructure investment skills
Recommendation
The government’s ambitions for infrastructure investment are at risk of not being achieved because of sector specific skills shortages. Using private finance to support investment requires public bodies to develop and maintain specialist commercial and financial skills. The NAO has previously reported that contracting authorities often had limited in- house skills available to make critical decisions on complex projects, which can place the public sector at a disadvantage. Building specialist skills takes time and the uncertain infrastructure environment in the UK has led to a weakening of the essential skills needed for successful project delivery. The Treasury recognises these challenges and in response has created functions and centres of expertise to support public bodies. NISTA says it is running a number of training programmes and has an associate pool of 60 experts in various fields providing advice and support to public bodies. The government has also announced that the 10-year infrastructure strategy will support Skills England in its assessment of where skill gaps exist that will need to be addressed to successfully deliver key infrastructure projects. recommendation The Treasury and NISTA should set out plans for building, attracting and retaining the necessary skills to support public sector infrastructure investment. This includes skills within both the public and private sectors.
Government Response Summary
The government committed to expanding the scope of existing initiatives to build, attract, and retain the necessary private finance skillset within the public sector, and NISTA will publish new PFI contract and performance management guidance later in 2025.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. specialist private finance capacity and capability, as well as other specialist workforce skills. Government has engaged widely with industry during the development of the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, and will continue to work in partnership with the private sector and a wide range of stakeholders to unlock capital and build confidence in the UK. The government is already building capability across government by providing training for some aspects of private finance. NISTA holds network events for private finance experts across central and local government to facilitate networking, encourage the sharing of expertise, and improve learning. NISTA also provides training for PFI contract managers on several topics including contract expiry and will be publishing PFI contract and performance management guidance later in 2025 to help authorities improve the management and performance of their contracts. Finally, the Treasury, NISTA and UK Government Investments lead on the government's corporate and project finance professions which support learning and development, postmortem analysis and professional skills. In the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, the government committed to understand the UK’s infrastructure skills requirements – to better identify where it needs to provide support. Skills England will collate a national picture of skills gaps by working closely with mayoral strategic authorities, while bodies such as the Office for Clean Energy Jobs will build a clear picture in individual sectors. The Infrastructure Pipeline data will also provide insight on the scale and range of construction skills required, which will support Skills England in understanding and addressing critical skills gaps. The government will expand the scope of these existing initiatives to capture how the public sector can build, attract and retain the necessary private finance skillset and workforce to deliver greater infrastructure investment.