HC Deb 08 March 1993 vol 220 cc409-10W
Mr. McAllion

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list all the market tests that have taken place in the Ordnance Survey since November 1991; whether the result was the maintenance of in-house provision or whether the service was contracted out; what was the name of the successful contractor where appropriate; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Baldry

None of the projects in Ordnance Survey's market-testing programme since November 1991, which involves exposing in-house functions to competition, has yet reached the stage where a contract or service level agreement has been awarded. Functions and services which are currently being market tested are computer operations, printing and graphic reproduction, elements of office services, site security and catering.

Mr. McAllion

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list all those services or functions that have been contracted out from Ordnance Survey 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. Baldry

Since November 1992, Ordnance Survey has contracted out the following functions without market testing an in-house bid.

  1. (1) Part of the Internal Audit programme, particularly computer audit. The successful contractor was Ernst and Young. No in-house bid was sought since the work contracted out supplemented the continuing in-house programme and the intention was to assess the quality of contracted out audits prior to full market testing.
  2. (2) Bulk enveloping and despatch of invoices and publicity material. The successful contractor was the local Sheltered Workshop (SIT). The work was contracted out to meet peak demands and to make better use of directly employed staff.

Ordnance Survey has contracted out a proportion of its large scale map digitising programme for a number of years and this has been ongoing since November 1991. The reason for contracting out is that the digitising programme has a finite life, it will be completed by 1995, and it was not economic to invest in recruitment and training of extra staff and the associated expensive equipment for such a short period. The contractors involved are

  • BKS Surveys
  • Consult
  • Gardline Surveys
  • Geografix
  • Glen Computing
  • Graphical Data Capture
  • Ground Modelling
  • Grove Consultants
  • JTC Computer Systems
  • Laserscan
  • Mason Land Surveys
  • QC Data
  • Summerside Associates
  • Survey International
  • Survey and Development Services
  • Taywood Data Graphics

In addition, a large part of the in-house task associated with warehousing materials and equipment has ceased as a result of the introduction of call-off contracts.