§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 23 January,Official Report, column 50, for what reasons the transitional and restructuring costs in the contract between his Department and the Sema Group in respect of the privatisation of the data centre in Bootle remain in confidence now that the contract has been agreed; what proportion this element of the contract was of the total contract amount; if any part of the agreement prior to the contract being signed required such commercial secrecy; if permission of Sema is required to publish the figure; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HowardIt is not the usual practice to publish commercially sensitive information about contracts particularly where that would involve the disclosure of details of the pricing arrangements or structure of competitive bids and this applies both before and after a contract is let. The purpose is to preserve the legitimate business interests of competing companies who may wish to bid for future contracts. This consideration applied to492W the contract between the Home Office and Sema Group plc and I continue to regard information about the proportion of the contract costs which relate to transitional and restructuring activities as commercially confidential. If it was considered appropriate to disclose commercially sensitive information from tender or contractual documents. I would regard it as necessary to discuss the matter in advance with the contractor concerned.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 23 January,Official Report, column 50, how many people were employed at the data centre in Bootle prior to its privatisation; how many of those employees (a) have been and (b) will be made redundant as a result of the Sema Group's proposals; and if he will indicate the type of staff, and the number in each category, made redundant.
§ Mr. HowardFollowing the award of a contract for the supply of Home Office administrative information technology services, staff in the undertaking were transferred to Sema Group plc under the terms of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981; this included 272 staff based on Merseyside.
Although subsequent redundancies by Sema Group are a matter for it, we understand from the company that, in order to make efficiency savings identified following an operational review of business requirements, it invited applications for voluntary redundancy in November 1994 from staff on Merseyside. As a result, 92 former Home Office staff on Merseyside have been accepted for voluntary redundancy under terms equivalent to those which would have applied if they had remained civil servants. I understand that all of these were formerly administrative grade civil servants in the grades administrative assistant to grade 7.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 23 January,Official Report. column 50, what is the expected percentage level of overspend or underspend for the estimated total payments from his Department for the Sema Group's transitional and restructuring costs against the amount allocated for these costs in the contract.
§ Mr. HowardPayments to Sema Group plc to cover transitional and restructuring costs are expected to be at the level set out in the contract. Sema Group's bid contained an element for such costs, a proportion of which were estimated because they were dependent on the outcome of an operational review which they would conduct if awarded the contract. However, the contract specified a maximum to be paid by the Home Office on the basis that any costs over that amount would be melt by Sema Group. It is expected that the level of payments from the Home Office to Sema Group will be at that maximum level, which was the level assumed in evaluating the bid.