Procurement Bill [HL]

Written evidence submitted by Chris Smith, e-Procurement and Procurement Consultant, CA Procurement Consulting Ltd (further submission) (PB24)

To the Public Bill Committee

House of Commons, Palace of Westminster

SW1A 0AA,

London

Re: Procurement Bill: call for evidence

Publication of contract documents

The then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson MP, said [1] in a debate about Covid-19: Road Map in the House of Commons on 22nd February 2021:

"Contained within that question was possibly another suggestion that we could have done things differently with the procurement of PPE. All I will say is that the contracts are there on the record for everybody to see.."

The then Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, Julia Lopez MP, said in a debate [2] about Covid-19 Government Contracts on 21st June 2021 in Westminster Hall debate:

"Since the High Court's judgment in relation to the DHSC's failure to publish some contracts, it has made significant progress. It has now published all known contract award notices and the contract documents for all historical covid-related contracts."

The publication of contract documents was also discussed with Sir Chris Wormald Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care and Alex Chisholm Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office during the Public Accounts Committee meeting [3] about the initial lessons from the Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic on 10th June 2021.

Sir Chris Wormald subsequently wrote [4] to the Public Accounts Committee on 2nd November 2021 and said:

"As of the end of June 2021, the Department [Department of Health and Social Care] is not aware of any Contract Award Notices (and the associated Contracts and Contracts Finder Notices) which have not been published in respect of contracts awarded for the supply of goods and services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic"

Today on Contracts Finder there are over 100 Contract Awards Notices published in 2021/22 for contracts worth £ 4.7 billion issued by the DHSC and NHS bodies that were awarded using Regulation 32 for the procurement of PPE etc for the COVID-19 pandemic where contract documents have not been published.

A Contract Award Notice and contract documents for a contract for 400,000 PPE aprons from Turkey which was reported by the BBC on 7th May 2020 [5] have still not been published on Contracts Finder.

On 24th June 2021 Alex Chisholm wrote [6] to Meg Hillier MP Chair, Public Accounts Committee saying:

"I am glad to be able to confirm in writing what I said on 10th June, which is that to my knowledge all of the Cabinet Office's contracts awarded using Regulation 32 during the pandemic have been published on Contracts Finder"

Today on Contracts Finder there are 29 Contract Awards Notices worth £248 million issued by the Crown Commercial Services (an executive agency and trading fund of the Cabinet Office) using Regulation 32 for the COVID Ventilator Challenge where contract documents have not been published. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Minister for the Cabinet Office and the Secretary of State for Defence were sent a pre-action letter [7] dated 11th January 2023 concerning the non-publication of these contracts.

The publication of contract documents is not only current government policy, as set out in Procurement Policy Note 09/21: Requirements to publish on Contracts Finder, but it is also a key milestone in the UK Government's Open Government National Action Plan for 2021-2023 [8] where it has committed to "Report every year on publication of contract documents, and extent of redactions in central government contracts".

Given the above, I feel that it is essential that the responsibility for oversight and monitoring of the publication of contract documents within the periods required in Clause 53 Contract Details Notices and Publication of Contracts should fall under the body whose remit is procurement oversight and that this should appear on the face of the Bill.

Additionally, I would like to suggest that Schedule 1 Section 3 Threshold Amounts has a new section that details the transparency thresholds for the publication of pipelines, contract documents, KPIs etc, stated elsewhere in the Bill so that are summarised in one place on the face of the Bill.

Yours faithfully

Chris Smith

e-Procurement and Procurement Consultant

CA Procurement Consulting Ltd

1st February 2023