Asked by: Lord Elton (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether their policy for the award of contracts for the provision of optometry and other services to their agencies includes a requirement to assess and compare the net tax revenue that would be provided by each competing bidder; and, if not, why not.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
All Government agencies are subject to European regulations covering both competition and awarding public contracts. Additionally, they apply the Government’s principles of transparency in communicating commercial opportunities, which includes actions to stimulate and attract opportunities for small and medium enterprises.
Standard tender documentation for commercial contracts incorporates a pre-qualification questionnaire that requests information from bidders as part of the Government’s policy, to check compliance with company tax laws. The information requested is proportionate with the value of the contract to be awarded.
In line with Government policy all new procurement tenders and contract awards are published via the Government’s central record system known as ‘Contracts Finder’. It would not be possible to quantify prospectively the net tax revenue likely to be generated by each competing bidder.
Asked by: Lord Elton (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish their criteria for the award of contracts for the provision of optometry services to their agencies.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
All Government agencies are subject to European regulations covering both competition and awarding public contracts. Additionally, they apply the Government’s principles of transparency in communicating commercial opportunities, which includes actions to stimulate and attract opportunities for small and medium enterprises.
Standard tender documentation for commercial contracts incorporates a pre-qualification questionnaire that requests information from bidders as part of the Government’s policy, to check compliance with company tax laws. The information requested is proportionate with the value of the contract to be awarded.
In line with Government policy all new procurement tenders and contract awards are published via the Government’s central record system known as ‘Contracts Finder’. It would not be possible to quantify prospectively the net tax revenue likely to be generated by each competing bidder.
Asked by: Lord Elton (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the optometry services provided under contract to their agencies operate in a market in which there are sufficient independent providers to maintain the stimulus of fair commercial competition.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
All Government agencies are subject to European regulations covering both competition and awarding public contracts. Additionally, they apply the Government’s principles of transparency in communicating commercial opportunities, which includes actions to stimulate and attract opportunities for small and medium enterprises.
Standard tender documentation for commercial contracts incorporates a pre-qualification questionnaire that requests information from bidders as part of the Government’s policy, to check compliance with company tax laws. The information requested is proportionate with the value of the contract to be awarded.
In line with Government policy all new procurement tenders and contract awards are published via the Government’s central record system known as ‘Contracts Finder’. It would not be possible to quantify prospectively the net tax revenue likely to be generated by each competing bidder.
Asked by: Lord Elton (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish their criteria for the award of contracts for the provision of audiology services to their agencies.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
There are no national criteria for awarding contracts for the provision of audiology services with the exception of a small number of specialised services which are commissioned nationally by NHS England. The specifications, setting out what providers must have in place to deliver specialised audiology services, can be found on the NHS England website at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-d/d09
The national contract for the provision of hearing aids is managed through the NHS Supply Chain and provides for the assessment of patients by National Health Service audiology professionals, as well as the provision and fitting of digital hearing aids. This contract ran from 2010 until 2014, and has subsequently been extended to July 2016. It is currently under review to determine the options for re-procurement after 2016. More information can be found at the NHS Supply Chain website at the following link:
www.supplychain.nhs.uk/product-news/contract-launch-briefs/2014/july/hearing-aids-and-accessories/