The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
The Cabinet Office is responsible for the Government’s participation in European negotiations on EU procurement matters. It is with regret that explanatory memoranda on 3 EU proposals submitted for scrutiny by Parliament which were the responsibility of my Department were submitted late, with the result that decisions were taken on the proposals in the Council of Ministers before the UK’s parliamentary scrutiny process could be completed. The proposals were:
EU Council document 12859/14; COM(2014)539: Proposal for a council decision establishing the position to be taken by the European Union within the Committee on Government procurement on the withdrawal of the Union objections to the delisting of three entities from Japan’s Annex 3 to Appendix I to the agreement on Government procurement. The proposal was adopted in the Council of Ministers on 29 October 2014.
EU Council document 13257/14; COM(2014)573: Proposal for a Council decision establishing the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union within the Committee on Government procurement on the accession of Montenegro to the agreement on Government procurement. The proposal was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 13 October.
EU Council document 13281/14; COM(2014)574: Proposal for a Council Decision establishing the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union within the Committee on Government procurement on the accession of New Zealand to the agreement on Government procurement. The proposal was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 13 October.
The Government were supportive of all three proposals through negotiations in Brussels.
The Cabinet Office has addressed the internal procedural failings which led to these overrides to ensure that similar failures do not happen again. These include giving an official in the Cabinet Office Ministerial team responsibility for managing EU scrutiny business on which the Cabinet Office leads. A training workshop will also be held to ensure the scrutiny process is properly understood across all Cabinet Office policy units that deal with EU business and that the expectations of Cabinet Office Ministers is also reinforced.