New Clause 13
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
4:15 pm
James Plaskitt (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Warwick and Leamington, Labour)
Before I respond specifically to the hon. Gentleman’s point, I shall respond generally. It is a kind of mantra—time and time again we hear public sector IT contracts slated by people reeling off a list such as that. I urge, however, that it be kept in proportion. There have been some huge, remarkably successful public sector IT contracts. I pray in aid the IT programme in my Department that introduced direct payment of benefits after the phasing-out of order books. It was a huge programme and a massive investment, and it came off almost without a hitch. We have examples of projects that worked very well, as well as those that throw up problems.
It is also important to keep the issue in balance. It is not as though the same problems do not exist in the private sector. Some huge private sector IT contracts have not exactly gone smoothly. It is not just that only the poor old Government have IT problems. The issue can come up in private sector as well as public sector operations. I say that to balance the comments predictably made by the hon. Gentleman, but I reassure him that as a non-departmental public body, the commission will have to adhere to the EU and public sector procurement regulations and all associated requirements regarding value for money and transparency. In addition to the procedures under the regulations, the commission will follow the guidelines set out by the Office of Government Commerce to ensure that it maintains a rigorous approach to its procurement.
On the hon. Gentleman’s idea in the new clause, the Department for Work and Pensions and the agency already have in place a dedicated contract manager to oversee the current IT contracts. It is expected that that practice will be continued by the commission once it has been established. It will develop a commercial strategy of its own, which, as previously mentioned, will follow EU and public sector procurement regulations and Office of Government Commerce procedures, which promote the importance of contracting authorities having in place a dedicated procurement and contract management system. I therefore think that the hon. Gentleman’s objective is met and that his new clause is therefore unnecessary, so I hope that he will agree to withdraw the motion.