Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has plans to require open book accounting clauses in respect of outsourced contracts; if she will publish any such clauses in contracts held by her Department; and how many of her Department's outsourced contracts contained such clauses in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18 by (i) Home Office policy area and (ii) contract value.

The Home Office follows the Cabinet Office and Crown Commercial Service procurement policy that assists in enabling open book contract management to be used in a fair way depending on the risk level and complexity of the contract. This ensures it is used on those contracts where the additional cost is justified by the level of benefits and risk. Standard clauses are published as part of the government’s Model Services Contract. Details may be found on the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0516-open-book-contact-management

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/model-services-contract

Details of clauses within individual contracts are published via Contracts Finder https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder