PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Department for Transport: Procurement (16 November 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times his Department has (a) terminated a contract, (b) imposed a penalty and (c) denied permission for a company to tender on the grounds of grave professional misconduct since November 2015.

Asked by:
Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat)

The Public Contracts Regulations (2015) include a mandatory requirement for contracting authorities to exclude companies from public contracts where they have been convicted of certain criminal offences including conspiracy, corruption, bribery and fraud. Potential bidders may also be excluded from participating in the tender process on certain grounds at the discretion of the contracting authority. These grounds include circumstances where they have been convicted of an offence (not attracting mandatory exclusion) relating to the conduct of his business or profession; or been found guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means that the contracting authority can demonstrate.

There have been no instances since November 2015 where it has been necessary to trigger these specific provisions in the Public Contracts Regulations.

Answered by:
Sir John Hayes (Conservative)
24 November 2016