Public Sector: Procurement

(asked on 4th September 2017) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of mystery shopper investigations into central Government bodies have been conducted within the two month timeline for each year since the service was established.


Answered by
Caroline Nokes Portrait
Caroline Nokes
This question was answered on 12th September 2017

The Mystery Shopper Service aims to complete investigations into Central Government procurements within two months, and those into wider public sector procurements within three months. However, the service is dependent on both suppliers and contracting authorities responding in a timely manner, and investigations sometimes require extended communications to determine the facts. Furthermore, suppliers raising cases sometimes come back with follow up questions or to dispute answers provided, resulting in cases taking longer to resolve than hoped.

The following table shows the number of cases that have exceeded the target timescale up to 6 September 2017:

Year

Exceeding 2 months for Central Government

Exceeding 3 months for Wider Public Sector

2011-12

27 (48%)

44 (100%)

2012-13

26 (59%)

64 (57%)

2013-14

27 (46%)

39 (35%)

2014-15

23 (40%)

26 (27%)

2015-16

19 (56%)

36 (42%)

2016-17

28 (88%)

38 (39%)

2017-18 (to date)

13 (43%)

2 (6%)

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