§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Education if she will list those parts of her Department or departmental agencies which were privatised without an in-house bid; if she will indicate the expertise which was absent in her Department or departmental agencies which prevented an in-house bid taking place; which future parts of her Department or departmental agencies she intends to privatise; and which of them do not have the necessary in-house expertise to mount an in-house bid. [29428]
§ Mr. BoswellSince the start of the "Competing for Quality" programme in April 1992, my right hon. Friend has not contracted out any parts of the Department or its agencies without an in-house bid.
My right hon. Friend will be inviting expressions of interest for a contract to administer the teachers' superannuation scheme. We shall let a contract only if it would provide better value for money than keeping the administration of the scheme in the public sector. We shall not invite a bid from the Teachers Pensions Agency, which administers the scheme at present, because we are not conducting a market test. But it would be open to the management or staff of the TPA to seek to buy out the agency. Whether or not the administration is contractorised, the scheme itself will stay in the public sector, on its current statutory basis.