Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kate Osborne and Julia Lopez

Thursday 11th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)]

What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of Government procurement policy.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)]

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.

[Kate Osborne [V]]

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?

[Julia Lopez]

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.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kate Osborne and Julia Lopez

Thursday 17th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Julia Lopez]

I would not agree. It is very important to understand that every contract went through the same eight-stage process, where it was looked into. The contracts were done on the grounds of commercial sense, rather than anything to do with any connections. As the NAO report said, Ministers declared all interests and there was no evidence of any wrongdoing.

[Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)]

What plans the Government have to ensure that the May 2021 local elections are covid-19 secure.