Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2016 to Question 53180, which two individuals reported minor perceived conflicts of interest; and what was the perceived conflict reported in each such case.

Information about the two individuals that reported minor perceived conflicts of interest is as follows:

1. An employee (AA) of an organisation commissioned by the Department to produce a specialist report on each bidder’s response to a specific set of requirements in the invitation to tender. After attending a training session for specialist report authors that included material on conflicts of interests, AA notified the Department that AA had a relative who was employed by Southern Rail, on the operational side of the business, and that the relative held a very small number of shares in the parent company. The Department was content for AA to continue in the appointed role because AA had declared the perceived conflict of interests and because AA’s relative was not in a position where they could have any influence over the procurement process.
2. An individual (BB) (not an employee of the Department) who was appointed to fill one of the quality and delivery evaluator roles. After attending a training session for evaluators that included material on conflicts of interests, BB informed the Department that a former colleague had joined one of the bidders and had drafted parts of the bid submission. BB informed the Department that the perceived conflict of interests was mitigated away because the parts of the bid submission that BB’s former colleague had drafted were not parts that BB would be evaluating.