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Sutherland Inquiry

At paragraph 2.59 of his report, Lord Sutherland says that"““the procurement procedure followed by PricewaterhouseCoopers and NAA on behalf of QCA was sound. It used the most up-to-date technique, Competitive Dialogue, which enabled QCA to refine its requirements and suppliers to develop their proposals during the procurement exercise.””" That was then endorsed by two OGC reviews. I have found no reason in the Sutherland inquiry to fault PricewaterhouseCoopers, other than the fact that there should have been the exercise of wider due diligence that should have been picked up by the OGC. That is one of the recommendations that I am acting on. As for the wider financial information about PricewaterhouseCoopers, I shall have to come back to my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor), as I do not have the answer in front of me. [Interruption.] I do not have the answer in front of me, so I shall have to get back to my hon. Friend. I asked Lord Sutherland to look at procurement in 2009. He has done so, and in his letter to me he says:"““It appears that a very thorough risk assessment has been conducted, which I believe is an essential component of any good procurement process. It will now be important to ensure that these risks continue to be actively monitored and addressed throughout the duration of the contract.””" I have today asked the QCA's new leadership to make sure that that happens. We are very aware of the matter, and it is one of the lessons from the Sutherland inquiry. In all cases, the Government will make sure that the recommendations are implemented properly, because that is the right way to rebuild confidence in testing for the future.