§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his Answers of 8 September, 2003,Official Report, column 95–96W, on the ASPIRE Programme and 11 December 2003, Official Report, column 604W, on the Inland Revenue, on what date it became Inland Revenue policy to include in its invitations to tender provision allowing it to undertake a review of the tax affairs of those companies responding; and on what date it was decided to include a provision in the ASPIRE invitation to tender allowing the Inland Revenue to undertake a review of the tax affairs of those companies responding.[160189]
§ Dawn PrimaroloAs a Government Department, the Inland Revenue must comply with EU Council Directive 50/92, which came into force in the UK in January 1994 as a Statutory Instrument (Public Services Contract Regulations 1993 (1993: No 3228)). This Statutory Instrument allows a contracting authority to reject a service provider if the latter has not fulfilled obligations relating to payment of taxes under the law of any part of the United Kingdom.
Work on drafting the ASPIRE ITT commenced in January 2002 and notification that a review of the tax affairs of bidders would form part of the evaluation was included in a draft version of the ITT issued to the three shortlisted bidders on 31 July 2002.