Written question asked by Irvine Patnick (Conservative), in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 19 March 1997. It was answered by Iain Sproat (Conservative) on Wednesday, 19 March 1997 on behalf of the Department of National Heritage.

Dept of National Heritage

Question: What evaluation procedure was used to select the shortlist of applications for the British Academy of Sport.

Answer: Sir Irvine Patnick: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what evaluation procedure was used to select the shortlist of applications for the British Academy of Sport. [18336] Mr. Sproat: The evaluation was carried out in an objective and non-political way by an experienced joint Department of National Heritage United Kingdom Sports Council evaluation panel. The evaluation panel was chaired by the chief executive of the UKSC and included two officers from the UKSC and two officials from DNH. In addition, the evaluation panel was advised by four outside consultants. There was two stages to the evaluation process. At the first stage, all 26 bids were evaluated by the evaluation panel against pre-defined criteria drawn up to assess compliance with the bid prospectus. At that stage, a list of 13 bids which should proceed to a detailed technical evaluation in stage two was determined. At stage two, there was a detailed technical evaluation of each of the 13 bids by the evaluation panel and its outside advisers. Each bidder was also given an opportunity to present their bid at an interview with the evaluation panel and advisers. Based on the advice of the evaluation panel, the Government and the UKSC announced on 25 February that the academy would be chosen from three contenders: the Central consortium, the Heyford Consortium and the Sheffield Consortium. These proposals are now being considered in more detail by the UKSC and DNH.

Secondary information