Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 7 June (HL7873), what assessment they have made of the implications for (1) openness, (2) transparency, and (3) accountability in public procurement, of their decision not to place those items in the Library of the House.

As part of the Value Based Procurement (VBP) programme, NHS Supply Chain (NHSSC) has developed a toolkit and two VBP models. The toolkit and models are designed for internal use by NHSSC’s procurement teams and Category Management Service Providers and are not available for publication as they are commercially sensitive.

Recognising the public interest in openness, transparency and accountability in public procurement, NHSSC is supporting awareness of VBP across the National Health Service and the supplier community. NHSSC has a dedicated VBP website that is updated as the programme evolves. This website contains the 2021 ‘Value Based Procurement Project Report and Findings’ that has an overview of the VBP toolkit.