Gateway review to be extended to smaller local authority projects

The government’s Gateway review programme is to be extended to local authority projects in excess of £200,000.

The move follows the successful pilot of the Gateway review on large-scale local authority projects last year. The pilot saw 60 Gateway reviews undertaken on 50 major projects for 44 local authorities. Now the Public Private Partnership Programme (4Ps), which advises on local authority procurement, wants to extend the benefits of the Gateway process.

Smaller projects will be reviewed under the "readiness to proceed" review, which is a version of the Gateway review, tailored to the requirements of low-risk projects. Like the Gateway reviews, the "readiness to proceed" reviews will be carried out by independent reviewers.

A training programme, run by the 4Ps, has already delivered around 200 independent reviewers, mainly from the public sector. Many more are in the pipeline to meet increased demand from local authorities. The 4Ps plans to deliver 150 Gateway reviews in the current year.