Government Procurement Policy
2021-02-11
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
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Context
No specific background or incident is mentioned, but the question arises from a need to assess the current adequacy of procurement policies post-Brexit transition.
What recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of Government procurement policy?
The end of the transition period provides an historic opportunity to overhaul our dated public procurement regime. We undertook an extensive programme of stakeholder engagement to identify where improvements could be made, and the recently published Green Paper sets out those long-planned proposals. The changes put value for money and transparency at the heart of the new approach and will cut red tape and unleash wider social benefits from public money spent on procurement.
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Assessment & feedback
The question specifically asked about a recent assessment, but no specific recent evaluation was provided; instead, general plans for improvement were discussed.
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
There is a concern that private providers of public services, such as Serco, are not required to comply with freedom of information requests which hides important business relationships from the public.
Private providers of public services are excluded from freedom of information requests, which means that, for example, Serco does not have to reveal the 29 different businesses to which it has outsourced contracts. Does the Minister support the expansion of the Freedom of Information Act to the private providers of public services, or does she think that it is okay that that information should be kept hidden from the public eye?
Serco is an approved supplier on the Crown Commercial Service contract centre framework and gained a place on that through fair and open competition, but I accept what the hon. Lady says about freedom of information requests and I am happy to look into that further for her.
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Assessment & feedback
The specific question was whether the Minister supports expanding FOIA; instead, she stated willingness to investigate without committing to a stance or action.
Response accuracy