Written question asked by Lord Beamish (Labour) on Wednesday, 23 March 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 7 April 2005. It was answered by Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour) on Thursday, 7 April 2005 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when his Department adopted the policy of not disclosing the total value of contracts held between the NHS and providers; if he will list the companies which tendered for the contract won by Alliance Medical to provide scanning services to the NHS.

Answer: Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when his Department adopted the policy of not disclosing the total value of contracts held between the NHS and providers; [224217] (2) if he will list the companies which tendered for the contract won by Alliance Medical to provide scanning services to the NHS. [224218] Mr. Hutton: It has always been the Department's policy to decide whether to disclose the value of contracts on a case by case basis. Information on specific companies that tendered for the contract is commercially sensitive. Releasing the names of companies which were not successful could be considered commercially damaging to the interests of the firms concerned. For this reason, 27 expressions of interest were received and six bidders were invited to negotiate for the contract.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 432 c1710W;432 c1705W; 224217;224218
Session: 2004-05
Subjects: Disclosure of information Contracts NHS Procurement Tomography Alliance Medical
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk