§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if he will list all those services or functions that have been contracted out front his386W Department since November 1991 without market testing an in-house bid against external competition with, in each instance, the successful contractor and the reasons for the decision to exclude an in-house bid.
§ Mr. KeyMy Department, which was formed in April 1992, has awarded a contract to Sema Group Ltd. for the supply of computer equipment and associated services. It is currently in the process of contracting out a range of central services, including mailroom services, minor maintenance, office cleaning, porterage, reprographics, security, central typing and secretarial cover. The Department has no in-house team to bid for the work and has decided to contract out these services so it can concentrate on its core policy tasks.
The royal parks division contracted out grounds maintenance work in February 1992. The successful contractors were:
Brophy Plc, Glendale Industries Limited, Serco Plc, Turfsoil Limited and Tyler Environmental Services Limited.The then Secretary of State for the Environment, who was responsible for royal parks at the time, decided that the work should be contracted out for policy reasons.