§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what contracts his Department and his agencies have with Serco Ltd.; what is the current cost; when each contract ends; what are the penalties involved should he seek early termination of the contract; and if he will make a statement. [26682]
§ Mr. HowardMy Department has seven current contracts with Serco Ltd., as follows:
- (a) Five contracts, work on which has been completed and where there has been no early termination of contracts. Contracts will end when final accounts have been paid and any retention sums returned as appropriate. This is scheduled to be by September 1996.
- (b) Two contracts due to expire on 31 May 1997 and 28 November 1997 respectively. The sums payable in the event of early termination cannot be pre-ascertained. Under the conditions of contract, if the Home Office were to terminate either contract early, through no fault of the Contractor, any payment would be calculated taking into account only the losses directly attributable to and unavoidably incurred, as a result o the termination. Were the contracts to be terminated due to contractor default or breach of certain contract terms, provisions exist for the Home Office to recover any losses incurred as a result.
The value of each contract is a matter of commercial confidentiality, but the combined value of the contracts calculated over the whole contract period is approximately £7 million.