§ Mr. SpellarTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to his answer of 25 May 1995,Official Report, column 756, if he will outline the procedure for awarding tenders for contracts in health and personal social services. [30439]
§ Mr. MossIn selecting tenderers for a particular service HPSS bodies first seek expressions of interest by advertising the intention to invite tenders in the local, national or trade press and where appropriate theOfficial Journal of the European Community. All companies responding to these advertisements are then subjected to vetting procedures which have regard not only to financial viability, technical competence and performance elsewhere but also list for future reference the size of a particular company and the volume of business it is capable of discharging. This is to ensure that contractors are not invited to tender for contracts they are unable to deliver.
Where a potential contractor is proposing to use his own plant and equipment the vetting procedure requires that these be checked to ensure that there is sufficient capacity and that such facilities are adequate to cope with the workload which will be placed on them or that any necessary upgrading will be undertaken
A list of potential contractors who satisfy the above criteria is then submitted to the HPSS Management Executive for approval. Tenders can be invited only from potential contractors who have been approved by the HPSS Management Executive.
In-house teams are not required to go through these vetting procedures.