§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the areas of discussion between his Department and trade unions in the Insolvency Service during the period of consideration of contractorisation of the Insolvency Service. [22756]
§ Mr. OppenheimDuring the period from October 1994, when the Government announced their intention to pursue the study of the preferred contracting out option identified by consultants, to the announcement on 28 February 1996 of the outcome of the contracting-out study, the Insolvency Service had a number of meetings with the trade unions. The main areas of discussion were
Matters arising from the feasibility study report prepared by Stoy Hayward;Potential conflicts of interest and implications for insolvency practitioners;The possible application of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 in interviews with insolvents and other investigation implications;729WThe timetable for the exercise;Staffing matters, including the application of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981, equal opportunities, competencies, changes to terms and conditions of service and the practice of rotating specialist staff between vetting and investigations duties;Matters arising from the preparation of an enabling order, including consultation with officials receivers;The question of rights of audience for any successful contractor;Matters arising from the draft specification of requirements and subsequent invitation to tender;Management-employee buyouts;The possibility of pilot schemes;Matters connected with a residual service in the event of any contracting out;The benchmarking methodology used by the service; The identity of the final six bidders;Insider dealing;Provisional post-contracting out consultation arrangements.In addition, there was discussion of issues not related to the contracting out exercise including pay and grading, reporting standards, health and safety issues, the use of the service's dedicated IT systems, the user survey conducted by the service and the service's management information system for Ministers (resource) bids.