Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) transparency of private companies that provide public services for her department and (b) protection of their commercially sensitive data.

The Ministry of Justice recognises the importance of the Government’s transparency obligations on public spending and routinely publishes relevant information in accordance with the legal and policy framework that governs public sector procurement. This includes publication of a contract award notice and a copy of the redacted contract (where appropriate), where the Ministry of Justice has awarded a contract to a private company to provide public services. There are specific thresholds and timescales in place which determine the publication obligations to be applied.

In complying with these transparency obligations, the Ministry of Justice ensures it also follows the requirements set out under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), to establish whether there are any permitted exemptions or redactions on commercial sensitivity grounds.