Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department maintains a centralised record of contract performance issues relating to Serco.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government has taken significant steps to increase transparency in the delivery of public services. Cabinet Office regularly publish a list of the most significant contracts held by central government on Gov.uk. This list includes up to four Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each contract, along with the supplier's performance against those KPIs.
Serco’s contract performance information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-performance-indicators-kpis-for-governments-most-important-contracts.
In 2019, the government introduced a new approach to the monitoring and management of strategic suppliers through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the government and each of its strategic suppliers. Strategic Suppliers have agreed to provide government with the information it needs to monitor and manage risks across their supply chains. Details of the current policy can be found here:
The Government does not routinely release information relating to formal warnings issued to suppliers as this may prejudice a supplier’s commercial interests.
Contracting Authorities are responsible for the award of contracts in line with the procurement regulations at the time of the award. This would include undertaking due diligence on suppliers as required by those regulations. It would not be appropriate for the Cabinet Office to comment on any specific procurements, that would be for the relevant Contracting Authority to respond.
Details of central government contracts above £12,000 and public sector contracts above £30,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder). Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search/Results).
The government must ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place to allow the prevention of suppliers with a history of serious contractual failures from being awarded public contracts. The recently launched Procurement Act 2023 has strengthened our ability to respond where issues arise and address poor performance. The Act makes it easier for contracting authorities to exclude suppliers from bidding for public contracts for past poor performance or where there has been breach of contract. Cabinet Office has published extensive guidance to support contracting authorities, in addition to a robust and wide reaching training offer to support the implementation of the Procurement Act.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the government has ever issued a formal warning to Serco under the Strategic Supplier Risk Management Policy.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government has taken significant steps to increase transparency in the delivery of public services. Cabinet Office regularly publish a list of the most significant contracts held by central government on Gov.uk. This list includes up to four Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each contract, along with the supplier's performance against those KPIs.
Serco’s contract performance information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-performance-indicators-kpis-for-governments-most-important-contracts.
In 2019, the government introduced a new approach to the monitoring and management of strategic suppliers through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the government and each of its strategic suppliers. Strategic Suppliers have agreed to provide government with the information it needs to monitor and manage risks across their supply chains. Details of the current policy can be found here:
The Government does not routinely release information relating to formal warnings issued to suppliers as this may prejudice a supplier’s commercial interests.
Contracting Authorities are responsible for the award of contracts in line with the procurement regulations at the time of the award. This would include undertaking due diligence on suppliers as required by those regulations. It would not be appropriate for the Cabinet Office to comment on any specific procurements, that would be for the relevant Contracting Authority to respond.
Details of central government contracts above £12,000 and public sector contracts above £30,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder). Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search/Results).
The government must ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place to allow the prevention of suppliers with a history of serious contractual failures from being awarded public contracts. The recently launched Procurement Act 2023 has strengthened our ability to respond where issues arise and address poor performance. The Act makes it easier for contracting authorities to exclude suppliers from bidding for public contracts for past poor performance or where there has been breach of contract. Cabinet Office has published extensive guidance to support contracting authorities, in addition to a robust and wide reaching training offer to support the implementation of the Procurement Act.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has conducted lessons-learned exercises on Serco’s delivery of public contracts; and what steps he is taking to ensure compliance with contractual conditions.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government has taken significant steps to increase transparency in the delivery of public services. Cabinet Office regularly publish a list of the most significant contracts held by central government on Gov.uk. This list includes up to four Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each contract, along with the supplier's performance against those KPIs.
Serco’s contract performance information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-performance-indicators-kpis-for-governments-most-important-contracts.
In 2019, the government introduced a new approach to the monitoring and management of strategic suppliers through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the government and each of its strategic suppliers. Strategic Suppliers have agreed to provide government with the information it needs to monitor and manage risks across their supply chains. Details of the current policy can be found here:
The Government does not routinely release information relating to formal warnings issued to suppliers as this may prejudice a supplier’s commercial interests.
Contracting Authorities are responsible for the award of contracts in line with the procurement regulations at the time of the award. This would include undertaking due diligence on suppliers as required by those regulations. It would not be appropriate for the Cabinet Office to comment on any specific procurements, that would be for the relevant Contracting Authority to respond.
Details of central government contracts above £12,000 and public sector contracts above £30,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder). Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search/Results).
The government must ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place to allow the prevention of suppliers with a history of serious contractual failures from being awarded public contracts. The recently launched Procurement Act 2023 has strengthened our ability to respond where issues arise and address poor performance. The Act makes it easier for contracting authorities to exclude suppliers from bidding for public contracts for past poor performance or where there has been breach of contract. Cabinet Office has published extensive guidance to support contracting authorities, in addition to a robust and wide reaching training offer to support the implementation of the Procurement Act.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has undertaken a cross-government review on the use of outsourcing providers with a history of (a) contractual breaches and (b) financial penalties.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government has taken significant steps to increase transparency in the delivery of public services. Cabinet Office regularly publish a list of the most significant contracts held by central government on Gov.uk. This list includes up to four Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each contract, along with the supplier's performance against those KPIs.
Serco’s contract performance information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-performance-indicators-kpis-for-governments-most-important-contracts.
In 2019, the government introduced a new approach to the monitoring and management of strategic suppliers through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the government and each of its strategic suppliers. Strategic Suppliers have agreed to provide government with the information it needs to monitor and manage risks across their supply chains. Details of the current policy can be found here:
The Government does not routinely release information relating to formal warnings issued to suppliers as this may prejudice a supplier’s commercial interests.
Contracting Authorities are responsible for the award of contracts in line with the procurement regulations at the time of the award. This would include undertaking due diligence on suppliers as required by those regulations. It would not be appropriate for the Cabinet Office to comment on any specific procurements, that would be for the relevant Contracting Authority to respond.
Details of central government contracts above £12,000 and public sector contracts above £30,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder). Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search/Results).
The government must ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place to allow the prevention of suppliers with a history of serious contractual failures from being awarded public contracts. The recently launched Procurement Act 2023 has strengthened our ability to respond where issues arise and address poor performance. The Act makes it easier for contracting authorities to exclude suppliers from bidding for public contracts for past poor performance or where there has been breach of contract. Cabinet Office has published extensive guidance to support contracting authorities, in addition to a robust and wide reaching training offer to support the implementation of the Procurement Act.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on Serco’s compliance with contractual obligations for electronic monitoring installations.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As the Contracting Authority for the electronic monitoring services contract, the Ministry of Justice is responsible for overseeing the supplier’s performance.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he is reviewing the (a) risk and (b) accountability of outsourcing contracts for offender management services.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As the Contracting Authority for the electronic monitoring services contract, the Ministry of Justice is responsible for overseeing the supplier’s performance.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of Serco’s performance in fulfilling its contract to provide electronic monitoring services.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As the Contracting Authority for the electronic monitoring services contract, the Ministry of Justice is responsible for overseeing the supplier’s performance.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2025 to Question 21018 on UK Relations with EU, which articles of the (a) EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, (b) Northern Ireland protocol, (c) Windsor Framework and (d) EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement the EU alleges the UK is in breach of.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I refer the Hon.Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, to the answer provided to the Question on 20 January 2025 in the House of Lords. The response from The Baroness Twycross can be found here.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many infringement proceedings the EU is pursuing against the Government; and whether the Government plans to propose remediation to prevent further infringement proceedings.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The EU is pursuing 8 infringement cases against the Government, as provided for under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement. We are committed to full and faithful implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment her Department has made of the findings in the recent report published by Big Brother Watch titled Ministry of Truth: The Secretive Government Units Spying On Your Speech.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
I refer the Hon. member to the answers given to PQs 148800, 148801, 148802 on 28 February 2023.
The Rapid Response Unit was used to understand the spread of information and potential disinformation, and help inform how the Government communicates effectively with the public.
Online disinformation is a serious threat to the UK, which is why we brought together expertise from across government to monitor disinformation, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. These units used publicly available data, including material shared on social media platforms, to assess UK disinformation trends and narratives. They have since been disbanded and the learning and expertise is now being replicated across the wider Government Communications Service.