Shared Services (Tendering)

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 4 February 2014.

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Photo of Katy Clark Katy Clark Labour, North Ayrshire and Arran 11:30, 4 February 2014

What his policy is on the tendering of shared services; and if he will make a statement.

Photo of Chris Grayling Chris Grayling The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

As part of the next generation shared services programme, the Ministry of Justice is reviewing the options available for the future delivery of our shared services.

Photo of Katy Clark Katy Clark Labour, North Ayrshire and Arran

A foreign multinational that has been awarded hundreds of millions of pounds of Government money to undertake work that was previously carried out in the public sector has admitted to exploring options to offshore that work. Surely the Secretary of State accepts that it is the Government’s responsibility to maximise employment in this country. Will he undertake to intervene if necessary to prevent that work from being offshored?

Photo of Chris Grayling Chris Grayling The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

I have a track record of saying that I do not believe in offshoring UK jobs, and I will always look carefully at any such situation that arises. Whenever possible, the Government should prevent that from happening. I cannot say that it will never happen, however, as these are often decisions with a number of factors behind them, but I am not sympathetic to the offshoring of UK jobs.