Scandal of Secrecy and Collusion: Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) at Work

By George Monbiot

The bridge to Skye was one of the early adventures in public private partnerships that the British government indulged in.

George Monbiot reported on it in his book The Captive State, a few years ago. He has not,let go of the issue.

"One of the ways in which the government can avoid the freedom of information laws, which come into force at the end of this week, is to classify public business as private business. Under the act, information can be withheld from the public if its disclosure would "prejudice the commercial interests of any person".(1) Wherever the government has entered into partnership with a private company, it can argue that it would damage the company's interests if it told us what it was doing. So unless there is a public inquiry, we might never discover why a bridge that should have cost no more than £25m to build has now cost £93m."