Review of the Papers, Thursday 09 August

Government  

• Taxpayers may be landed with a multi-million pound bill because of a Government decision to rebuild schools using private money, according to MPs. Half the Government's flagship £45 billion drive to modernise school buildings in England is being paid for using the private finance initiative (PFI). In a report today, MPs said the move was a "risk" which could result in local councils paying over the odds for new schools. Under PFIs, the taxpayer is locked into contracts of up to 30 years with companies which often charge huge mark-ups for basic maintenance. If a school closes before the contract expires, councils may have to shell out millions in compensation to the firm. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/09/npfi109.xml 
• The Government's controversial Home Information Packs (Hips) were devised with the help of consultants who had "a clear conflict of interest", the public spending watchdog said yesterday. Critics said that if the National Audit Office study had been published earlier, the scheme, which came into force last week, could have been pulled altogether. The NAO said it had now decided to produce a wide-ranging report into the packs. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/09/nhips109.xml  
• The future of the computer system that is supposed to keep track of 300,000 offenders a year who are in prison or on probation is in doubt after ministers halted the programme this week. The moratorium follows an admission that the original £234m costing "proved to be optimistic". Unions say the 2004 estimate has now risen to £950m. The rollout to 15 prisons next month and 15 more by the end of the year has been cancelled. The new computer system is supposed to underpin the introduction of "end-to-end management" of convicted criminals through the National Offender Management Service (Noms) which oversees the prison and probation service. But Harry Fletcher, of Napo, the probation officers' union, yesterday claimed the project, which is six months late and supposed to be in full operation by next July, was "close to collapse". http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2144638,00.html  
• The BBC's chairman yesterday hit back at critics of his handling of the crisis in public trust that has enveloped the broadcaster in recent months. But he admitted the corporation faced a "big challenge" to win back the confidence of licence fee payers and warned senior executives they would be fired if measures to tackle deception did not bear fruit. In an interview to mark his eventful first 100 days as chairman, Sir Michael Lyons also revealed he had ordered an audit of the new measures and would team up with media regulator Ofcom to hold a wide-ranging summit on the topic this year. He also refused to rule out radical surgery on the BBC, including the closure of entire channels or services, as the trust examines management plans to reallocate funds in the wake of a lower than hoped for licence fee settlement. http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2144757,00.html