Recommendation 20

When selecting which clusters to proceed with and which projects to select within each cluster, the Department assessed value for money against five criteria: deliverability; economic benefits; costs; carbon savings; and learning. Once the shortlist of Track 1 projects had been reached, the Department conducted a full value for money assessment, following Green Book guidance.66 In terms of assessing the first–of–a–kind risks, the Department told us that it completed a technical assessment on all the projects and that these were subject to several Gateway Review stages.67 While we understand that the Department has designed its business models with the intention that payments are only made once projects are operational and meeting certain parameters, this does not mitigate the risk that the project should not have been supported in the first place68