Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of the tendering process for the private company that will run the trust which provides support for people affected by contaminated blood; and how many full-time equivalent staff in his Department are involved in that tendering process.

Departmental resource in the tendering process represents input across policy, legal and procurement which divisions cannot be easily quantified.

The Department has not made an estimate of the cost to the private companies that will take part in the tendering process for providing support to people affected by National Health Service supplied infected blood. It will be for each company to make a judgement on the resources that they wish to devote to this process.

The Department is using the ‘Open Procedure’ as set out by the Public Contract regulations 2015 at:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/102/regulation/27/made

We intend to issue the invitation to tender on 1 November 2016 and the deadline for bids will be 9 December 2016. The evaluation of tenders is likely to run into January 2017. The new administrator will become operational in the financial year 2017/18 and the current bodies will operate until then.

Further information on the tendering process is already in the public domain, including information from pre-market engagement, and can be found at:

https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/580180d0-5cf3-4eb1-b7c7-07241fc95e84