§ Norman LambTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will make a statement on the Department's procurement policy with regard to offshore IT and call centre outsourcing; whether the Department is outsourcing IT and call centre jobs to offshore companies; to which countries the Department has outsourced these jobs; how much the Department has spent on outsourcing in each of the last two years; and how much has been budgeted for this purpose for the next two years. [147577]
§ Mr. AlexanderThe Cabinet Office's procurement policy is based on value for money with due regard to propriety and regularity, including the EU Treaty and the UK's international obligations.
The Department does not have a specific procurement policy with regard to offshore IT and call centre outsourcing. The Cabinet Office has outsourced a number of IT contracts over the last two years and I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Mr. Flight) on 6 October 2003, Official Report, column 998–99 for a list of all such contracts signed by my department since 1997. All of these were to companies based in the UK. To establish the sub-contracting arrangements of these companies would incur disproportionate costs.