Measurement of Achieving Excellence

OGC received the following request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:

I am emailing to request details under FOI of the OGC's progress towards targets listed in its campaign on Achieving Excellence in Construction.

The OGC committed itself by 31 March 2005 to delivering 70% (by volume) of construction projects at benefits evaluation stage (Gate 5) between 1 April 2003 and 31 March 2005 on time, within budget, to exceed consumer and stakeholder expectations, and with zero defects.

I am requesting the OGC's latest internal assessments of whether it is likely to meet these targets, and its current estimates of what percentage of projects (by volume) are being delivered on time, within budget, to exceed consumer and stakeholder expectations, and with zero defects.

OGC decided to disclose the requested information as far as it is available at this time.

Disclosed information

The OGC commitment you refer to is that which central government departments have made under the Achieving Excellence in Construction initiative, to maximise continuous improvement of the efficiency, effectiveness and value for money of their procurement of new works, maintenance and refurbishments.Departments agreed to measure a number of key project performance indicators in order to measure and build on their progress.

These project performance indicators were agreed by Ministers and are described as the Achieving Excellence Strategic Targets (AE ST). The particular AE ST you refer to is:

By March 2005, 70% (by volume) of construction projects reaching Benefits Evaluation (OGC Gateway 5) in the period 1 April 2003 - 31 March 2005 to be delivered:

on time
within budget
to exceed consumer and stakeholder expectations
with zero defects

An OGC Information Note was published in March 2004, which detailed the targets, relevant definitions and how project data for the measurement process was to be collected.

It was agreed that collection of the data within departments would be on an ongoing basis and that aggregated departmental data should be collated and issued to OGC on a biannual basis on 31 May and 30 November for periods ending 31 March and 30 September respectively.

Since the AE STs were agreed, departments have provided OGC with two samples of project data on the due dates. OGC has been working with departments to ensure that their final returns are as complete and accurate as possible.

The results arising from the data collected against this AE ST so far are shown in the summary attached at Annex A. These results are incomplete, have not yet been fully analysed nor their accuracy assessed. In particular there is a limited supply of data from significant players in construction procurement, namely the defence, health or education sectors. Neither do the results contain data on the last three months of 2004-2005.

While the results so far generated from the raw data received indicate a substantial improvement in project performance in terms of time, budget predictability and defects and consumer and customer satisfaction against the 1999 Bath University Benchmarking study, that must be tempered by the incomplete nature and scrutiny of the returns.

The final departmental returns are due at the end of May 2005, when a full validation analysis of all the AE STs results will be possible and OGC will publish their findings in a report in Autumn 2005.