Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what type of contract he has used to engage consultants to work on the Government's Test and Trace programme; and what tendering process he used to let those contracts.

Call off contracts from the Crown Commercial Framework (CCF) which contain a preselected list of suppliers with standard terms and conditions have been used in the majority of awards. Payment rates are as per the CCF rate card with discounts attained depending on value and length of role.

As part of our strategic workforce planning activities the number of consultants engaged is constantly under review and subject to change. Much of the focus of existing consultancy on the programme is to support the ‘build’ of the organisation. This support is only required on a temporary basis and most often used to provide skills that have not been identified within the Civil Service. For example, consultancies are used to provide support on app development.