Insolvency Service (Hansard, 7 December 1994)

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what criteria he will use to determine whether or not a pilot scheme will be implemented to evaluate the costs and benefits of contracting out parts of the Insolvency Service.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
Any decision to contract out official receivers' functions will be made on the basis of value for money. A pilot scheme would be appropriate if it were felt that the practical details of a contract needed to be tested.

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment he has made of the resources which it will be necessary to provide to the Insolvency Service Agency to concentrate its investigative role if the recommendations of Stoy Hayward Consulting are implemented in full, indicating the numbers of professional and administrative civil servants.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
No assessment has yet been made of the resources that would be needed to enable the Insolvency Service to pursue its investigative role. In any decision to contract out the administrative work of official receivers' offices, the resource implications of all residual work will be considered.

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what proposals he will include in the specifications to contract out the initial interview of bankrupts and directors of companies in compulsory liquidation to ensure that they are conducted by adequately qualified staff in the private sector.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
My officials are currently in the process of inviting firms to tender for a contract to work up a specification, bid documentation and evaluation criteria to enable the work of official receivers to be contracted out in the event that such a decision is taken. As part of this work, the successful contractor will be asked to determine performance criteria for all aspects of any work to be contracted out, including the initial interviews of bankrupts and company directors.

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has to consult insolvency practitioners, trade associations, chambers of trade and commerce and other interested bodies over his proposal256W to contract out part of the official receiver's statutory functions.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
Any contracting out of the official receivers' functions would require them to be consulted pursuant to section 69(3) of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994. I and my officials have received representations from a variety of sources on this issue and expect to receive further representations if any decision to proceed with contracting out is made.