§ Norman LambTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on his Department's procurement policy with regard to offshore IT and call centre outsourcing; whether his Department is outsourcing IT and call centre jobs to offshore companies; to which countries his Department has outsourced these jobs; how much his Department has spent on this outsourcing in each of the last two years; and how much has been budgeted for this purpose for the next two years. [147585]
§ Mr. RammellForeign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) purchasing policy follows the Government's Public Purchasing Consolidated Guidelines which require the procurement of goods and services to be based on value for money and that they should be acquired by competition unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary.
In the UK the FCO has not agreed any contracts for the provision of IT or call centre services operated outside this country, nor are there any plans to do so.