Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the commitments made by the UK at the Anti-Corruption Summit 2016, when the Crown Commercial Service plans to introduce a new check to prevent corrupt bidders winning public contracts.
The Government committed in its Anti-Corruption Strategy 2017-2022 to trial in the Crown Commercial Service, a new conviction check.
The purpose of the trial was to establish whether convictions data could be accessed at source to undertake conviction checks on preferred bidders on behalf of Government departments and complement existing provisions in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
The trial is now complete and Cabinet Office is analysing the results before identifying a preferred approach and timescales for implementation.