Contracts between Public and Private Sectors

HL Deb 18 July 2002 vol 637 cc180-1WA

Viscount Astor

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they consider, in the interest of value for money, that they should publish whenever possible the main details of contracts between private companies and the public sector. [HL5118]

Whether they consider that commercial confidentiality in contracts between the private sector and the public sector is being used to conceal excess profits. [HL5119]

Lord McIntosh of Haringey

Publication of the main details of contracts is a matter for individual departments to decide in the circumstances of each specific procurement. In considering this, departments will be governed by Part II of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. It would contravene the code if a department were to conceal excess profits by the use of the exemption covering commercial confidentiality.