Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Graeme Morrice

Wednesday 20th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)]

Can the Minister explain why his Government have failed to bring forward robust proposals for a statutory register of lobbyists given that the public want one, the lobbying industry wants one and the Government promised one?

[Mr Maude]

An announcement will be made shortly, but it is worth pointing out that the hon. Gentleman’s party was in power for 13 years and did the square root of nothing on this.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Graeme Morrice

Wednesday 8th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

We have already put in place new arrangements for the senior civil service and they will be rolled out for the whole civil service at the delegated grades. It is really important that appraisal identifies the very best performers, rewarding them with promotion and proper pay, and pays serious attention to those who underperform, who cause massive demoralisation to the hard-working majority of dedicated civil servants.

[Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)]

T3. Given the fact that the report of the Public Administration Committee, “A Recipe For Rip-Offs”, has recommended that owing to allegations of anti-competitiveness and collusive behaviour by some large IT suppliers, the Government should establish an independent and external investigation into those claims, will the Minister agree to implement the recommendations and set up an investigation into the oligopoly of large suppliers?

[Mr Maude]

The hon. Gentleman is completely correct that an oligopoly of IT suppliers has, to far too great an extent, dominated Government ICT contracts. We seek to change that by having smaller contracts and much quicker and better procurement processes, but we have a legacy of huge contracts with that oligopoly of suppliers and are looking at how we can deal with that.