Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Thursday 17th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Clive Lewis (Norwich South) (Lab)]

What plans he has to review the value for money of the Government’s use of consultants during the covid-19 outbreak.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

What plans he has to review the value for money of the Government’s use of consultants during the covid-19 outbreak.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Government outsourcing during the covid-19 outbreak.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

We will try to come back to you, Clive.

[Andrew Gwynne [V]]

The National Audit Office’s investigation into Government procurement during the pandemic reflects the chaotic culture of outsourcing across Government. Contracts have been awarded after work has begun without competition and without any meaningful due diligence checks. How can the public have any trust in the Government’s response if the Government are not transparent with them?

[Julia Lopez]

The National Audit Office set out a number of recommendations that we will be looking into, but the idea that we did not need to contract under emergency terms during the pandemic is inaccurate, and there are rules in place to allow us to do that. We have been slow to publish contracts because we experienced some problems, which I set out in the Westminster Hall debate last week, but we now have 100% of those contracts for the relevant bodies.