The United Kingdom is recognized as a pioneer in getting the private sector involved in public service delivery. The Thatcher government implemented a vast privatisation program in the early 1980s. In 1993, it launched its highly successful Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in order to speed up and facilitate public-private partnerships for infrastructure projects. The PFI enabled contributions to be made in the form of preferential loans, equity capital, asset transfers, and subsidiary work, and combinations of these methods. Agreements made in 1995-1996 were valued at 5 million pounds sterling.

More recently, the transformation of FPIs into PPPs led to a broadening of the partnership concept, adding flexibility to the FPI formula, which had been much criticised for its bureaucratic red tape and the very high costs involved for tenderers. As a result, the Treasury Task Force ⁴ was created and mandated to guide project managers through the bureaucratic maze in order to facilitate the development of their projects. The task force also supports new projects by providing a management guide and a series of cases illustrating the best public-private partnership practices.

The government is firmly engaged on the PPP track, favouring two formulas that are perceived as very promising: joint ventures and wider markets. Under the joint venture formula, both parties (public and private) invest in the project and share the eventual profits or losses, while the wider market formula focuses on marketing certain government-owned products using private-sector expertise in the particular field.

The information technology field is especially favoured and constitutes a unique category due to the characteristics associated with technological development projects. The projects underway are varied. They range from computerisation of the army's recruitment centre and training of the army's helicopter pilots, to computer and office technology services for the government and the takeover of employee recruitment and job search activities by the private sector.

Of course, collaboration is especially appealing because it reduces costs, but it also makes it possible for the public sector to focus on its core mission, while benefiting from private sector expertise in other areas. The public sector thus forges new alliances with the private sector and even adopts measures designed to improve these relationships. Consequently, the effort to create a true spirit of collaboration precedes all other project-related activities. The results observed are impressive, for the costs associated with public service delivery have dropped significantly and the quality of the services has increased.