§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the functions of his Department that have been(a) market tested and (b) outsourced in each of the last five years, specifying the (i) money saving and (ii) percentage saving in each case.[42998]
§ Ms BlearsThe Department ran market-testing programmes in 1995 and 1997, which generated substantial savings.
Market testing was subsequently replaced by Better Quality Services (BQS) initiative in July 1998, which was introduced to ensure that all services provided by central Government are regularly reviewed and that action is taken to achieve improvements.