Feb. 26 2010
Source Page: Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative: Proportion of domestically produced food used by government departments and also supplied to hospitals and prisons under contracts negotiated by NHS. 19 p.Found: domestically produced food used by government departments and also supplied to hospitals and prisons under contracts
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the awarding of NHS data contracts is (a) fair and (b) transparent.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England is subject to Public Contracts Regulations (PCR) 2015 and conducts procurements in adherence to the PCR. The procurements for the Federated Data Platform, which is awaiting final approval, and Privacy Enhancing Technology, which is currently in evaluation stage, are no exception.
NHS England has followed a fair, open, and transparent procurement process for both procurements. Both processes were open procedures that invited any suppliers to participate who could meet NHS England’s minimum criteria and deliver the requirements. Extensive pre-market engagement was undertaken, with all notices published on the Government’s Find A Tender and Contracts Finder sites. NHS England has been transparent with the process that has been followed, which is detailed in the tender documents published on NHS England’s e-tendering system, and has published all evaluation criteria, in accordance with PCR. Tenders have been independently evaluated by subject matter experts from across the National Health Service.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has (a) ethical and (b) reputational criteria that companies must satisfy to be awarded NHS contracts.
Answered by Will Quince
National Health Service bodies set their own policies on how to award contracts, but they must do so in line with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and central policy. The Government uses a standard selection questionnaire that requires suppliers to confirm they meet certain standards. Suppliers can be excluded for a variety of reasons, including where they are guilty of grave professional misconduct or where they have shown significant or persistent deficiencies in the performance under a prior public contract. Information on the policy relating to the Standard Selection Questionnaire is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-0323-standard-selection-questionnaire-sq
From an ethical perspective this also includes references to Social Value, Modern Slavery and Carbon Reduction policies.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what contracts NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have with The Phoenix Partnership and for what services; and what assessment they have made of the appropriateness of it providing such services.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is the contracting authority for two consecutive framework agreements on which The Phoenix Partnership (TPP) has been appointed as a supplier, and awarded call-off contracts. These frameworks are the GP Systems of Choice (GPSoC), from 2014, and the GP IT Futures framework agreement (GPITF FA), which succeeded the GPSoC in 2020. The GPITF FA is the main contractual framework to supply IT systems and services to general practices (GPs) and associated organisations in England. The GPITF FA is operationally managed by NHS England, and the relevant contracting authorities under the call-off contracts are the individual integrated care boards, who contract on behalf of GPs.
In addition to managing the GPITF FA on behalf of the Department, NHS England is the contracting authority on three active contracts with TPP for: GP IT development and compliance; provision of Point of Care services to the NHS England Vaccination Programme; and provision of IT services to residential places of detention under the Health and Justice Information Systems contract.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has a statutory requirement to report on the performance of the national immunisation programmes, and in June 2022, TPP was awarded a contract to extract this data directly from GPs' systems for the UKHSA, with a successor contract being awarded for the same work in October 2023. All Government contracts are awarded fairly and transparently, in line with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. All decisions on contracts are rigorously scrutinised to assess a company’s ability to perform and deliver the best value for money for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions her Department has had with Elysium Healthcare on continuing its contract following the inquest into the death of Liam McGenity.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has had no such discussions with Elysium Healthcare, individual National Health Service commissioning organisations hold contracts with NHS and non-NHS providers for specified services, as part of their commissioning function. NHS England has advised that NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB) contracts with Elysium Healthcare under spot purchase agreements, which means that a contract is only ongoing for the duration of an individual patient’s placement.
The ICB continues to work with St Mary's Hospital in Warrington, part of the Elysium Healthcare Group. Quality visits have taken place at the St Mary’s Hospital estate, alongside visits by the NHS England Specialised Commissioning team, and Care Quality Commission (CQC) visits. All contracts with non-NHS providers are subject to NHS contract quality reviews, in addition to the regulatory regime of the CQC.
Mar. 26 2024
Source Page: NHS general ophthalmic service fees and optical voucher values from April 2024Found: NHS general ophthalmic service fees and optical voucher values from April 2024
Written Evidence Feb. 07 2024
Committee: Public Accounts CommitteeFound: NHS0002 - NHS Supply Chain and efficiencies in procurement CASPC Ltd Written Evidence
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there are contracts for the cremation of (a) stillborns, (b) miscarriages and (c) baby deaths at a (i) national and (ii) NHS trust level; and if she will publish (A) details and (B) the start dates of those contracts.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Neither the Department nor NHS England holds information on contracts for the cremation of stillborns, miscarriages, and baby deaths.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the General Ophthalmic Services sight test fee for opticians; and how many opticians stopped providing NHS services in the most recent 12 months for which data is available.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The level of the National Health Service sight test fee is considered annually, taking into account evidence provided by the optical fee negotiating committee, affordability for the NHS, alongside information regarding patient access to sight testing services, which continue to be widely available.
Although 254 contracts for providing NHS sight testing services were terminated between February 2023 and January 2024, 179 new contracts were awarded. There are various reasons why contractors choose to stop providing NHS sight testing services, including retirement, selling the practice to a new owner, and ceasing trading as a business.
Mar. 25 2024
Source Page: One-off payments of up to £3,000 for over 27,000 health workersFound: Tens of thousands of staff at non-NHS organisations including community nurses, physiotherapists and