§ Mr. JackTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if he will make a statement setting out the criteria employed by the Intervention Board in determining the selection of slaughterhouses to carry out the requirements of the over 30-months-scheme; [105292]
(2) if he will make a statement setting out the reasons why the Interventions Board terminated its contract with the Nottingham processing company for the over-30-months scheme. [105299]
§ Ms Quin[holding answer 19 January 2000]: OTMS slaughter contracts, effective from 4 January 2000, have been awarded to 20 abattoirs. Decisions were reached following a competitive tender under which bids were evaluated against previously published objective criteria, including quality of service, price, ability to offer a dedicated service, ease of supervision, throughput and location.
All the bids for a particular area of the country were scored against each of the criteria and aggregate scores were compared. Nottingham Processing Company scored well, but their aggregate score was less than the scores of the five successful companies in the Midlands region.