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NHS: Procurement

Volume 496: debated on Wednesday 15 July 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what efficiency savings were (a) anticipated and (b) generated under the Framework for Procuring External Support for Commissioning programme in each year of the programme. (286633)

Efficiency savings could not be anticipated in advance of national health service use of the framework. These will be determined on a case-by-case basis, dependent upon type of support required by each individual commissioning authority.

Some commissioning authorities stipulate a requirement for Framework for procuring External Support for Commissioners (FESC) suppliers to commit to the generation of a degree of savings. This differs from procurement to procurement, and will be dependent upon the type of commissioning service being procured. To date, in those contracts where this stipulation has been made, FESC suppliers have committed to guaranteed savings totalling £18 million. This figure does not include any additional incremental savings subsequently achieved during the course of a contract.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the net cost of the Framework for Procuring External Support for Commissioning programme has been to date. (286634)

To date, the total net cost to the national health service for procurements through the Framework for procuring External Support for Commissioners (FESC) is £15 million. In some cases, dependent upon the type of services being procured, there are likely to be additional incremental savings, which will be shared between the commissioning authority and the FESC supplier.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has paid to KPMG as part of the Framework for Procuring External Support for Commissioning programme to date. (286635)

To date, no contracts have been signed with KPMG by commissioning authorities through the Framework for procuring External Support for Commissioners (FESC). Therefore, to date, the amount paid to KPMG in relation to provision of services through FESC is £0.00. KPMG did provide the central FESC team with some assistance in developing some elements of the generic template documentation. This was a short-term consultancy arrangement to a total value of approximately £25,000.