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Education Maintenance Allowance

John Lennon. What happened was the very antithesis of good government. As you know, Lady Winterton, I am a member of the Public Administration Committee. We have a meeting tomorrow and an inquiry on good governance on the way, one of a number that we are running in tandem. A paper has been prepared for the Committee by the National Audit Office, and it sets out a template that we can use in various situations to see how something measures up to good government. We need to know who was responsible for the failure and bring appropriate individuals to account. There should be an inquiry, perhaps by the relevant Select Committee, the Select Committee on Children, Schools and Families. I know that the Minister has been in touch with our colleague who chairs it, my friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman). What we cannot do, or allow the LSC or anyone else to do, is let people shelter behind regulations and procedures and say, ““We followed the regulations. We followed the procedures””, without acknowledging the bigger picture that the entire system was in meltdown, which should not have happened. In a reply to the shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, a letter from the chief executive of the LSC, whom I have mentioned too often this afternoon, stated:"““The LSC carried out the procurement process in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 using competitive dialogue. This allowed the LSC to work closely with both bidders—””" Liberata and Capita—"““over a number of months ensuring there was an understanding of requirements and potential solutions on both sides.””—[Official Report, 16 October 2008; Vol. 480, c. 1494W.]" If that happened, if people were listening and there was competitive dialogue, how on earth did we end up in the situation that we are in? I also want to hear from the Office of Government Commerce, which apparently waved the process through. There is a gateway review to test such things, and if everything is robust and fits together, the project is waved through. That happened in this case, so we need the OGC to explain itself. I mentioned the paper produced by the NAO. Its foreword states:"““Well designed programmes have three important characteristics: simplicity; realistic timescales; and customer focus.””" I believe that the administration of the education maintenance allowance failed on all three counts and we need to know why.