To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether there has been any nugatory cost to his Department and its agencies relating to tendered procurement where the tender process has been cancelled prior to the award of the contract in the last three years. (242463)

Over the last three years the Northern Ireland Office’s Procurement Unit has identified six tenders that were cancelled prior to award of contract.

In respect of these tenders, there would have been abortive cost in advertising the tender and staff time involved in work on the tender process up to the point of cancellation. In one instance, where the cancellation was subsequently challenged, there were legal costs involved in defending the challenge (which may be recoverable).

We do not attribute staff costs to individual procurements and therefore cannot determine a cost for this element if the tender process is cancelled prior to contract award.

Specific costs that we can attribute over the last three years are as follows: