Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what tests are applied to the new supplier when a contract awarded by the Food Standards Agency for the delivery of Official Veterinary Controls is negotiated; and what role is played by the (a) Treasury and (b) Cabinet Office when awarding such contracts or negotiating intra-contractual rate rises and one-off payments.

Contracts for the delivery of Official Controls are awarded in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations. All tenderers complete a standard pre-qualification envelope which is based on the Cabinet Office template.

As part of the Tender Evaluation process the Food Standards Agency (FSA) undertook a robust and detailed analysis of the financial model each bidder submitted, including the coherence between the financial model and the technical bid submitted and the underlying cost and assumptions of the financial model. The financial submission also included sensitivity analysis against the core financial bid assumptions that were validated by the FSA as part of the tender evaluation.

In accordance with Cabinet Office Spend Controls process, the FSA submitted an Outline Business Case prior to commencing the formal tender process and a Full Business Case prior to awarding the contract to the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury for approval to proceed. Both Businesses Cases underwent robust analysis by the Spend Controls Teams prior to being approved. In line with standard Government processes on such contracts, intra-contractual rate rises and one-off payments defined as special payments require HM Treasury and Cabinet Office consultation.