HM Courts and Tribunals Service: Procurement

(asked on 27th March 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service spent on third-party suppliers (a) in total and (b) per supplier in the financial year 2017-18.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 5th April 2019

The information requested in point A of each question is listed below.

HMCTS has spent the following on third party suppliers:

  • 1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016: £415,684,106
  • 1 April 2016 – 31 March 2017: £528,626,816
  • 1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018: £679,957,077
  • 1 April 2018 – 28 February 2019: £667,349,522

The information requested within point B of each question could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

HMCTS use third party suppliers to provide a wide range of goods and services across the court estate, including security, fines enforcement, court interpreters and IT software.

As part of the governance process, approvals are sought from finance business partners, HR business partners and the director general to ensure that project outcomes and budget are validated and to seek confirmation that internal resource is not available to deliver either due to the specialist nature of the project or due to capacity issues enabling delivery within the project timescales. By using third parties the department can save on salary, national insurance and pension costs associated with permanently employing individuals whose skills may not be needed after a set period.

Spending has increased as HMCTS delivers its £1 billion Reform programme, bringing new ways of working to the justice system.

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