PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Coronavirus: Quarantine (27 January 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there are penalties for underperformance in the terms of Sitel's contract with the Government to run the Isolation Assurance Service during the covid-19 outbreak.

Asked by:
Fleur Anderson (Labour)

The Isolation Assurance Service (IAS) is undertaken through an existing Public Health England (PHE) contract which has been formally updated and is on a rolling agreement with two-weeks’ notice. Sitel is the only company working on the IAS. The spend on setting up and running the IAS to end of September 2020 was £664,000.

The performance indicators for Sitel’s contract for the IAS are contained in the original Crown Commercial Services roster agreement and within the PHE contract. The PHE contract is amended as requirements change.

There are no penalties, however both the Crown Commercial Service Framework Agreement and the PHE contractual side have performance sections in them. These refer to items such as regular review meetings, staff training, timely submission of reports, billing, agreed stand up times for staffing and cancelation of the contract. PHE does have the ability to retain 5% of the fees for poor performance.

Sitel was contracted under direct award as an existing supplier who had successfully assisted in previous urgent and sensitive situations.

Answered by:
Ms Nadine Dorries (Conservative)
2 February 2021