§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what steps she is taking to ensure that Personal Performance Consultants is not given unfair commercial advantage through being allowed special access to employment services staff under their contract to provide welfare services; [21166]
(2) which welfare services are to be provided for employment service staff by Personal Performance Consultants under the contract recently awarded to it; and what is the cost of the contract. [21167]
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§ Mr. ForthResponsibility for the subject of the questions has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. John McAllion, dated 20 March 1996:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions about the decision to award a contract to Personal Performance Consultants (PPC) to provide welfare services to those employed within the Employment Service (ES).My decision to award the contract to PPC was reached following a market test carried out in accordance with the Cabinet Office Efficiency Unit Guidance. It represents best value for money to ES and therefore better value for money to the taxpayer. The services to be provided by PPC under this contract cover information, advisory and counselling services both face to face and by telephone; and support to line and personnel managers within ES. The details of these services were set out clearly in the specification of our requirements. They do not allow PPC to acquire commercial advantage in offering advise to ES employees.The amount to be paid to PPC under this contract will be determined by the number of people it is to cover. As the numbers employed in ES may vary during the life of the contract it is not possible to give a definitive contract value. However, using the indicative volumes utilised during the evaluation process it would be around £3.2 million over three years.I hope this is helpful.