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<p>A search to identify the proportion and value of the Department’s contracts that
have been let or planned to be let and spend on monitoring these contracts would incur
a disproportionate cost. Information on the value of all contracts let cannot be provided
without further detailed analysis being carried out.</p><p> </p><p>Under this Government’s
transparency programme, for all contracts over £10,000 the Department now additionally
publishes details of these on Contracts Finder which is available at:</p><p> </p><p>www.gov.uk/contracts-finder</p><p><strong>
</strong></p><p>Of the Department’s Executive Agencies, these are:</p><p> </p><ol
type="1"><li>Public Health England (PHE) – Contracts let between £1 million and £3
million since 2010: 6, Contracts let over £3 million since 2010: 10, Contracts planned
to be let between £1 million and £3 million: 0. Contracts planned to be let over £3
million: 1.</li></ol><p>PHE have only existed since 1 April 2013 and do not maintain
records to show the precise amount of time spent monitoring contracts as a range of
factors contribute to the actual time spent on this activity.</p><p> </p><ol start="2"
type="1"><li>Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency - Contracts let between
£1 million and £3 million per year since 2010: 1, Contracts let over £3 million per
year since 2010: 3, Contracts planned to be let between £1 million and £3 million
per year : 2, Contracts planned to be let over £3 million: 1. The agency does not
measure the cost of tendering, implementing and managing its contracts. This task
is undertaken by the agency’s Procurement team together with the contracts end users.
The procurement team consist of three individuals (Grade 7, Senior Executive Officer
and Higher Executive Officer), they have over 300 contracts on record with a total
contract value of £160 million.</li></ol><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Of the Department’s
Non-Departmental Public Bodies, these are:</p><p> </p><ol start="3" type="1"><li>Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Authority confirm no information held.</li></ol><p> </p><ol
start="4" type="1"><li>Human Tissue Authority confirm no information held.</li></ol><p>
</p><ol start="5" type="1"><li>Monitor- Contracts let between £1 million and £3 million
since 2010: 11, Contracts let over £3 million since 2010: 2, Contracts planned to
be let between £1 million and £3 million: 3. Contracts planned to be let over £3 million:
None. Spend on monitoring each contract: average of £16,000 per contract, comprising
the cost of the estimated staff time for each contract. Number of officials monitoring
each contract: average of 0.2 FTE per contract.</li></ol><p> </p><ol start="6" type="1"><li>National
Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) confirmed since 2010, it has let 2
contracts worth between £1 million and £3 million and 16 contracts that are over £3
million. In addition, from the present time to nine months from now, NICE plan to
let 3 contracts worth between £1 million and £3 million and 2 contracts over £3 million.</li></ol><p>
</p><p>NICE does not hold information on how much is spent monitoring each contract.
Each contract is assigned to a designated Contract Manager. However, this does not
equate to the whole time equivalent of the post as each contract makes up a small
part of a much broader role.</p><p> </p><ol start="7" type="1"><li>NHS England - NHS
England’s scheme of delegation authorises Area Directors (the budget holders) to negotiate
and sign contracts and there is no central contract database. Across England there
are tens of thousands of contracts which would need to be reviewed in order to collate
the information being requested. Even calculated using the lowest estimates (10,000
contracts each taking one minute to locate and review) we estimate that it would take
NHS England 167 hours to compile this information. This would therefore entail a disproportionate
cost.</li></ol><p> </p><ol start="8" type="1"><li>Care Quality Commission - Contracts
let between £1 million and £3 million since 2010: 23, Contracts let over £3 million
since 2010: 5, Contracts planned to be let between £1 million and £3 million: Nil,
Contracts planned to be let over £3 million: 2.</li></ol><p> </p><ol start="9" type="1"><li>Health
and Social Care information Centre (HSCIC) – confirmed since 2010, it has let 13 contracts
worth between £1 million and £3 million and 9 contracts that are over £3 million.
HSCIC further plan to let 3 contracts worth between £1 million and £3 million and
4 contracts over £3 million.</li></ol><p> </p><p>These contracts are managed by multidisciplinary
teams throughout the organisation, including procurement, finance, technical, estates
and project management teams and a full breakdown for each contract is not available.
All contracts above are monitored by a team of 17 procurement colleagues costing £655,153
(2013-14 figures). However, this team also oversees a significant number of sub £1m
contracts across the organisation.</p><p> </p><p><em>Note:</em> The contract numbers
are from information readily available. HSCIC are currently working to build a more
comprehensive contracts database to better and more accurately answer similar queries
in the future. These numbers do not include contracts which HSCIC or legacy organisations
have/plan to let on behalf of the Department or NHS England.</p>
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