§ Mr. LeighTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what further steps have been taken since the Government's response to the Committee of Public Accounts' 38th Report of Session 2001–02, to encourage competition for the supply of information technology systems when the Inland Revenue's contracts with Accenture and Electronic Data Systems come up for renewal in 2004. [119671]
§ Dawn PrimaroloThe Inland Revenue has continued to work actively with the three short-listed bidders. A final version of the Invitation to Tender was issued on 13 December 2002 and the Department held a number of briefings with each bidder to help them respond to that document. All three bidders submitted comprehensive responses on 14 March 2003 and these are now being evaluated. The responses show that the IT services industry is very serious about the competition with seven leading IT suppliers engaged in one or other of the three bids for the contract. The Government believe that the steps taken have created a very real competition.