Public Accounts Committee

Fourth Composite Report
on Issues Dealt
with by Correspondence

Together with the Minutes of Proceedings of the Committee
Relating to the Report and the Minutes of Evidence

Ordered by The Public Accounts Committee to be printed 3 June 2010
Report: NIA 62/09/10R Public Accounts Committee

Session 2009/2010

Sixteenth Report

Membership and Powers

The Public Accounts Committee is a Standing Committee established in accordance with Standing Orders under Section 60(3) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. It is the statutory function of the Public Accounts Committee to consider the accounts, and reports on accounts laid before the Assembly.

The Public Accounts Committee is appointed under Assembly Standing Order No. 56 of the Standing Orders for the Northern Ireland Assembly. It has the power to send for persons, papers and records and to report from time to time. Neither the Chairperson nor Deputy Chairperson of the Committee shall be a member of the same political party as the Minister of Finance and Personnel or of any junior minister appointed to the Department of Finance and Personnel.

The Committee has 11 members including a Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson and a quorum of 5.

The membership of the Committee since 9 May 2007 has been as follows:

Mr Paul Maskey ³ (Chairperson)
Mr Roy Beggs (Deputy Chairperson)

The Lord Browne ⁹
Mr John Dallat
Mr David Hilditch ⁷
Mr Trevor Lunn
Mr Patsy McGlone ^2,6
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin
Mr Stephen Moutray ¹⁰
Ms Dawn Purvis
Mr Jim Shannon ⁵

¹ Mr Mickey Brady replaced Mr Willie Clarke on 1 October 2007
¹ Mr Ian McCrea replaced Mr Mickey Brady on 21 January 2008
¹ Mr Jim Wells replaced Mr Ian McCrea on 26 May 2008
² Mr Thomas Burns replaced Mr Patsy McGlone on 4 March 2008
³ Mr Paul Maskey replaced Mr John O'Dowd on 20 May 2008
⁴ Mr George Robinson replaced Mr Simon Hamilton on 15 September 2008
⁵ Mr Jim Shannon replaced Mr David Hilditch on 15 September 2008
⁶ Mr Patsy McGlone replaced Mr Thomas Burns on 29 June 2009
⁷ Mr David Hilditch replaced Mr George Robinson on 18 September 2009
⁸ Rt Hon Jeffrey Donaldson replaced Mr Jim Wells on 18 September 2009
⁹ The Lord Browne replaced Rt Hon Jeffrey Donaldson on 19 April 2010
¹⁰ Mr Stephen Moutray replaced Mr Jonathan Craig on 19 April 2010

Table of Contents

List of abbreviations used in the Report

Report

Executive Summary

Introduction

Electronic Service Delivery within NI Government Departments

Internal Fraud in the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland

General Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland on Financial Auditing and Reporting 2007-08

• Prompt Payment Practice and Performance in the Education Sector
• Legal Challenges by Unsuccessful Bidders

Transforming Emergency Care in Northern Ireland

Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Northern Ireland

Appendix 1

Minutes of Proceedings of the Committee Relating to the Report

Appendix 2

Correspondence

(a) Electronic Service Delivery within Northern Ireland Government Departments

(b) Internal Fraud in the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland

(c) Prompt Payment Practice and Performance in the Education Sector

(d) Legal Challenges by Unsuccessful Bidders

(e) Transforming Emergency Care in Northern Ireland and Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Northern Ireland

List of Abbreviations used in the Report

The Committee - Public Accounts Committee

C&AG - Comptroller and Auditor General

A&E - Accident and Emergency

DSD - Department for Social Development

DARD - Department of Agriculture and Rural Development

DCAL - Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure

DE - Department of Education

DETI - Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment

DFP - Department of Finance and Personnel

DOE - Department of the Environment

DRD - Department for Regional Development

DSD - Department for Social Development

ELBs - Education and Library Board

LPS - Land and Property Services

NDPBs - Non-Departmental Public Bodies

NISRANS - Northern Ireland Street Works Register and Notification System

PFI - Private Finance Initiative

SINI - Sports Institute of Northern Ireland

SLA - Service Level Agreement

Executive Summary

1. At its forward work planning session on 25 June 2009, the Public Accounts Committee discussed of the Northern Ireland Audit Office reports available for its consideration. The Committee decided that it would not be able to consider all the reports individually and agreed to take written evidence and report on a number of these reports in a composite.

NIAO Reports

2. The Committee decided that this report should consider written evidence on the following NIAO reports:

• 'Electronic Service Delivery within Northern Ireland Government Departments' (NIA 97/07-08, 5 March 2008);
• 'Internal Fraud in the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland' (NIA 49/08-09, 19 November 2008);
• 'Financial Auditing and Reporting: 2007-2008' (NIA 115/08-09, 20 May 2009):
• Prompt Payment Practice and Performance in the Education Sector
• Legal Challenges by Unsuccessful Bidders.

3. The Committee also decided to ask written questions on progress with the following reports and to follow this up at the evidence session on 12 November 2009 with the Accounting Officer for the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in regard to 'The Performance of the Health Service in NI':

• 'Transforming Emergency Care in Northern Ireland' (NIA 126/07-08, 23 April 2008) and;
• 'Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Northern Ireland' (NIA 73/08-09, 14 January 2009).

Conclusions

4. In the Committee's view the departments have provided full information to support the recommendations in these reports. Detailed conclusions on each report are included below.

Introduction

5. During the 2009/10 Session, the Public Accounts Committee (the Committee) wrote to the relevant Accounting Officers on the following reports:

• Electronic Service Delivery within Northern Ireland Government Departments
  (NIA 97/07-08, 5 March 2008)
• Internal Fraud in the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland (NIA 49/08-09, 19 November 2008)
• General Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland on Financial Auditing and Reporting 2007-08 (NIA 115/08-09, 20 May 2009)
• Prompt Payment Practice and Performance in the Education Sector
• Legal Challenges by Unsuccessful Bidders
• Transforming Emergency Care in Northern Ireland (NIA 126/07-08, 23 April 2008) and;
• Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Northern Ireland (NIA 73/08-09, 14 January 2009)

6. In this correspondence, the Committee sought detail of the actions taken in addressing a number of issues raised by the C&AG. On receipt of each response, the Committee assessed the action taken. This report contains the result of those assessments.

Electronic Service Delivery within Northern Ireland Government Departments

(NIA 97/07-08, 5 March 2008)

7. The Committee wrote to Mr Stephen Peover, Accounting Officer, Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) on 23 November 2009, detailing a number of questions to the above report. (See Appendix 2 (a))

8. The Committee focused on:

• The number of key services that have, or plan to deliver efficiency gains of £1 million or more as contained within the Executive's target of 100%.
• Performance against the timescales of e-enabled projects.
• The targeting of hard-to-reach groups and identifying barriers to the take-up of electronic services.
• The undertaking of post completion evaluations.
• The development of joined up services which cross departmental boundaries.
• Lessons for the successful delivery of electronic services.

9. Mr Peover replied to the Committee on 15 January 2010 providing a full response to the Committee's questions. (See Appendix 2 (a))

10. The following is a summary of the response:

11. The Department advised the Committee that seven of the "key" services, contained within the Executive's 100 per cent target for key services, have delivered efficiency gains with a financial value of £1 million or more. These are:

• DSD Assessment and Payment of Social Security Benefits
• DARD Cattle Testing
• DARD Cattle Movement Recording
• DOE DVA Telephone / Electronic Booking / Payment for Practical Driving Tests
• DOE Electronic Booking of and Payment for MOT Tests
• DRD Information Sharing - Northern Ireland Street Works Register and Notification System (NISRANS)
• DETI Provision of Services - Insolvency Service's new integrated ICT system

A further two key services plan to deliver efficiency gains of this order. These are:

• DOE Planning ePIC system
• DOE Automated First Registration and Licencing of Vehicles

DOE's e-PIC Planning System

12. The Department of the Environment confirmed that the ePIC project commenced in spring 2005, with an original timescale for implementation by April 2006. Full ePIC solution is expected to be implemented in spring 2010.

13. DoE advised that over-runs on the project arose from a combination of factors. These included the dimension and complexity of the requirements having been underestimated; the design and software development phases having been technically challenging; high levels of personnel turnover within the project teams with loss of experience and continuity; and, given the passage of time, changes and additions which had to be made to the original requirements.

14. A number of e-planning applications have been introduced in the interim, as partial implementation of ePIC. These include a new Planning Service Web portal which combined the internet and intranet sites within integrated information architecture providing interactive tools to allow the public to complete a planning application and to calculate planning fees , a Planning Explorer browser to interactively query the planning application database and to track the progress of applications, including those being brought to district councils as part of the statutory consultation process, a Development Plan viewer allows the public to view plans and to interactively interrogate the maps to reveal allocations, designations, planning proposals and policies contained in the Development Plan.

15. According to the Department when the full ePIC solution is implemented in 2010 it will facilitate, amongst other things, on-line submission of planning applications and payment of fees, e-consultations and an on-line Property Certificates service.

DETI's online Insolvency Service

16. The Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment confirmed that the Insolvency Service e-Business project was scheduled for completion in April 2006 and was actually completed in October 2006.

17. DETI advised that the delay was due to technical problems which were greater than anticipated by the supplier; however, as a result of this extra time the project was able to deliver efficiency gains of almost £4m by the end of March 2009.

DEL's Interactive Careers Information

18. The Department for Employment and Learning confirmed that the project was scheduled to be completed on 21 July 2004 and was completed by early June 2004 and within budget.

19. The Project Management Evaluation report includes an assessment of how well objectives were achieved and a comparison of actual against planned costs. All objectives detailed in the PID appear to have been successfully achieved.

The Take-up of Electronic Services

20. Guidance to help departments was issued in 2003, when the eGovernment Unit published a Digital Inclusion Strategy aimed at addressing the gap between those who had access to computers and had the skills to use them, and those who had not. Implementation of the Strategy led to a number of significant initiatives aimed at targeting "hard to reach" groups.

21. The number of citizens making use of a computer with internet access has increased from 46% in 2003 to 76% in 2009. These figures are based on the NI Omnibus Survey through the NI Statistics and Research Agency.

Joined Up Electronic Services

22. The Department confirmed that a number of joined up electronic services had been developed since the Comptroller and Auditor General's report.

23. NI Direct was developed as a result of a review which concluded there were too many NI Government websites and that there should be one citizen-facing website for central government information and services.

Post Project Evaluations and the Dissemination of Lessons Learned

24. The Committee learned that 58 of the key services identified were later subject to post completion evaluations. A further five are planned but not yet completed. For many of the remaining 18 projects the nature and low cost of the electronic service provided were considered not to warrant such an evaluation.

25. The lessons learned from such evaluations, together with the recommendations contained in this NIAO report and best practice guidance issued by the Cabinet Office, have been incorporated in the NICS Channel Strategy published in 2009.

26. The Delivery and Innovation Division has disseminated good practice in electronic service delivery through a series of high profile eGovernment events over recent years. These events, which were free to business managers across the entire public sector, were used to showcase exemplars in electronic service delivery and to share experiences and lessons learned.

27. The Committee considered Mr Peover's response at its meeting on 21 January 2010.

Conclusions

28. The Committee believes that Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) has the potential to deliver significant efficiency savings and to improve the provision of services to the general public. Already there have been significant successes, such as the NI Direct Website, which met its original 1 million page impression target on 4 August 2009 and reached almost 2,500,000 impressions by 27 Nov '09.

29. It can also improve accessibility and offer more convenience for citizens to transact with government, such as the booking of vehicles for MOT. The Committee acknowledges such developments and encourages the public sector to continue to target the delivery of seamless services, which cross departmental boundaries, where it makes sense to do so.

30. However, the Committee is also aware, and indeed has dealt with, a number of IT projects which have failed to deliver value for money. As is evidenced by projects such as the e-PIC in DoE there have been significant cost overruns and late delivery. It is essential, in such cases, that the public sector learns from these harsh lessons and ensures that such failings are not repeated.

Internal Fraud in the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland

(NIA 49/08-09, 19 November 2008)

1. The Committee wrote to Mr Paul Sweeney, Accounting Officer, Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL) on 16 September 2009 detailing a number of questions to the above report. (See Appendix 2 (b))

2. The Committee focused on:

• The recovery of money stolen by a fraudster and the improvements to oversee the governance of arm's-length bodies.
• The resourcing of the Department, Non-departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) and other arm's-length bodies to proactively and reactively undertake counter-fraud work.

3. Mr Sweeney responded to the Committee on 30 September 2009 providing a full response to the Committee's questions. (See Appendix 2 (b))

4. The following is a summary of the response:

The Recovery of Stolen Money

5. The Department confirmed that of the £10,449 that had yet to be recovered at the time of the NIAO report, a further £235 had been recovered and £209 had been discounted due to an unrelated company matter. The current outstanding monies are £10,005.

6. The Department confirmed that it had sought legal advice to explore the possibility to pursue this matter with the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland (SINI) auditors. However, the legal opinion received was that there would be little prospect of success. The Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure is considering the options that have been presented.

7. DCAL has issued updated guidance to all arm's-length bodies which details the controls that should be noted and an assurance that they have been implemented. DCAL has also made significant progress on the sponsorship arrangements.

The Resourcing of the Department, NDPBs and Other Arm's-Length Bodies

8. The Department states that it has a service level agreement (SLA) for the provision of fraud investigation services which provides sufficient resources for the Department and ALBs to respond appropriately to any suspected or actual cases of fraud.

9. The Committee considered Mr Sweeney's response at its meeting on 15 October 2009.

Conclusions

10. The Committee is concerned that a senior member of staff within the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland (SINI) was able to steal £75,000 over an 11-month period without being detected.

11. It was clear that even the most basic controls and general governance arrangements were missing: there was no separation of duties; inadequate management supervision; no evidence of any check on the fraudster's academic or professional qualifications; no evidence that references from previous employers were taken up before he was employed.

12. Perhaps most concerning was that warning signs went unnoticed by management for some time before the thefts were uncovered.

13. However, the Committee is pleased to learn that the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL), has recovered most of the money from the perpetrator, it has now established robust financial management and reporting procedures in SINI, and lessons learned have been disseminated in DCAL and its arm's-length bodies. It notes DCAL's assurance that action has been taken to ensure the lessons are applied effectively and acknowledges the improvements made to arrangements for undertaking proactive and reactive counter-fraud work.

Prompt Payment Practice and Performance in the Education Sector

(Financial Auditing and Reporting: 2007-2008 NIA 115/08-09, 20 May 2009)

14. The Committee wrote to Mr Will Haire, Accounting Officer, Department of Education (DE) on 16 September 2009 detailing a number of questions to the above report. (See Appendix 2 (c))

15. The Committee focused on:

• The impact on prompt payment performance as a result of transference to Account NI.
• The proactiveness of the Education and Library Boards (ELBs) to improve performance.
• The performance of the Department and arm's-length bodies to achieve payment within 10 days.

16. Mr Haire responded to the Committee on 14 October 2009 providing a full response to the Committee's questions. (See Appendix 2 (c))

17. The following is a summary of the response:

The Impact on Prompt Payment Performance as a Result of Transference to Account NI.

18. The Department advised the Committee that it had forecast a dip in performance in as payment processing transferred to Account NI.

19. However, steps were taken to minimise the impact of the transition on the Department's prompt payment performance. For example, postcards were issued to the Department's suppliers prior to go-live advising them to send all invoices for payment to Account NI from April onwards.

20. Communication, via email, staff magazine and a presentation to key users on the need for business areas to receipt goods and authorise payments on a timely basis was delivered.

The Proactiveness of the Education and Library Boards (ELBs) to Improve Performance and Performance Against the Ten-Day Target.

21. The Department confirmed that ELBs have introduced a number of measures to improve performance, which includes:

• The regular issuing of guidance to schools and other locations reminding them of the need for prompt processing of invoices, the procedures involved and the potential implications of late payment.
• Individual cases of late payment are investigated with the relevant school with a view to improving performance.
• The delivery of training and workshops, which have provided an opportunity to re-iterate the requirements of prompt payment.

22. The Department stated that due to structural problems the 95% overall best practice objective was not being achieved. However, it was setting challenging but realistic departmental targets based on the previous year's performance, and all ELBs were on target to meet their annual prompt payment target in the first quarter of the 2009-2010 financial year.

23. The structural issues are:

• Deterioration of prompt payment performance over holiday periods due to schools employing term-time staff or staff on leave.
• Small schools often have teaching principals, thus limiting the amount of available time for administrative duties. In addition, the smaller the school the greater the difficulty during periods of closure and absence.
• Lack of adequate clerical resources to carry out administrative tasks during term time. Administrative staff are mainly employed on a part-time basis and activities such as pupil attendance registers, school meals, ordering classroom materials and providing admin support to teachers often takes priority over invoice processing.
• Large schools and out-centres have a number of authorising signatories. Delays in submission of invoices occur because deliveries and invoices are checked within the individual department before being forwarded to the main office for input.
• Larger schools have significant budgets and tend to issue bulk orders to suppliers. These orders can involve multiple small items which need to be checked by teaching and technical staff, a resource intensive and time consuming task.

24. Under the arrangements for the Local Management of Schools it is the principal and governors of the school who have responsibility for the direct management of the school. The ELB has only limited influence in this area.

25. The Committee considered Mr Haire's response at its meeting on 5 November 2009.

Conclusions

26. The Committee was disappointed to learn that Education and Library Boards are still not meeting the best practice target to process 95% of all payments within 30 days. Whilst there has been significant improvement year-on-year, performance is still far short of what is required.

27. Even in the first quarter of 2009-10, none of the ELBs met the best practice objective of 95%, with performance varying from 81% to 90% achievement.

28. The Committee is particularly concerned about ELBs ability to deliver effectively against the current ten-day commitment, given their shortcomings in achieving the 30-day objective – latest figures from the Boards indicate that only between 22% and 52% of payments have been processed within this timescale.

29. It believes that all possible steps should be taken to meet the ten-day commitment and pay suppliers as promptly as possible since it has the potential to make an important contribution to the local economy and help local businesses to survive these difficult economic times.

Legal Challenges by Unsuccessful Bidders

(Financial Auditing and Reporting: 2007-2008 NIA 115/08-09, 20 May 2009)

1. The Committee wrote to Mr Stephen Peover, Accounting Officer, Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) on 16 September 2009 detailing a number of questions to the above report. (See Appendix 2 (d))

2. The Committee focused on:

• The cost of legal advice.
• Legal challenges settled out of court.
• The recoupment of legal costs.

3. Mr Peover responded to the Committee on 6 October 2009 providing a full response to the Committee's questions. (See Appendix 2 (d))

4. The following is a summary of the response:

5. The Department provided a detailed breakdown of the legal costs in respect of the Partenaire legal challenge which amounted to £1.018 million.

6. The Department also provided a confidential lessons learnt report for the Committee's information. (An anonymised version has been made available for inclusion in its place in this report and can be located at Appendix 2 (d)).

7. The Committee considered Mr Peover's response at its meeting on 5 November 2009 and agreed to clarify some information contained in the reply relating to the level of legal costs and the recoupment of legal costs. (See Appendix 2 (d))

8. The Committee wrote to Mr Peover on 23 November 2009.

9. By reply, Mr Peover confirmed to the Committee that when the Department commissions any professional advice whether from lawyers, accountants or other professions, it is obliged to pay for that advice regardless of whether the advice is acted upon or rejected.

10. The Committee considered Mr Peover's responses at its meetings on 5 November 2009 and 21 January 2010.

Conclusions

11. Since revisions to EU Regulations in 2006, tenderers have become more aware of the opportunity to challenge decisions, not just at the award stage but at all stages of the procurement process. As a result, there has been a marked increase in demands for debriefing and there is a growing trend in the number of legal challenges.

12. The Department (DFP) has indicated that, since April 2007, 12 legal cases have been ongoing against Centres of Procurement Expertise, but was unable to provide a definitive list. The Committee is concerned that this information is not readily available.

13. The Committee has noted that successful challenges have demonstrated weaknesses in the assessment process. It believes that, while revised EU regulations provide unsuccessful bidders with the opportunity to challenge decisions, proper adherence to procurement procedures, and awareness of the most recent legislation, should have ensured that the assessment process was robust enough to prevent the number of challenges.

14. The Committee is concerned that the increasing number of legal challenges brings an unwelcome risk to contract completion, at a time when investment is vital, and inevitably leads to delay. Two of the challenges, which involved the framework agreements for major capital works projects[1] with an estimated capital value in excess of £500m, resulted in delays of over nine months. In the Committee's view, such delay is unacceptable, especially in the current economic climate with work shortages and lay-offs in the construction industry.

15. The Committee also has concerns relating to the quality of public sector legal advice and the costs involved in defending legal challenges, particularly in light of the limited success rate. DFP agrees with the Committee's view that the cost of external legal advice in the Workplace 2010 case was high, at over £1 million, but believes that this was necessary for a robust defence.

16. The Committee was further concerned to learn that, in the same case, DFP had made an ex-gratia payment to the unsuccessful bidder, where, although it was convinced that it could win the case, it concluded, on legal advice, that the balance of advantage and the best value for money for the taxpayer would be achieved by seeking to agree a settlement. The Committee does not agree that ex-gratia payments are justified simply because they might potentially minimise the costs. This sends out the wrong message to unsuccessful bidders, who could see a legal challenge as a soft option.

17. This Committee acknowledges the complex nature of procurement and accepts that the EU procurement regime is subject to ongoing legislative interpretation. However, it is vital that DFP ensures compliance with proper procedure at all times and that appropriate in-house legal advice is available and sought.

Transforming Emergency Care in Northern Ireland

(NIA 126/07-08, 23 April 2008)

1. The Committee wrote to Dr Andrew McCormick, Accounting Officer, Department Health, Social Services and Public Safety on 16 September 2009 detailing a number of questions to the above report. (See Appendix 2 (e))

2. The Committee focused on:

• The management of increased attendance levels to A&E departments.
• The Department's performance for hospital discharges.

3. Mr McCormick responded to the Committee on 13 October 2009 providing a full response to the Committee's questions. (See Appendix 2.E.)

4. The following is a summary of the response:

5. The Department confirmed that attendance to A&E departments has increased by 3% from 2006/2007 and by 8% from 1999/2000. For 2008/2009 there were a total of 732,022 attendances to A&E departments in Northern Ireland.

6. Inappropriate referrals stem mainly from the general public and in some instances from primary care. They can be as a result of alcohol related or personality disorders or instances where an individual attends A&E perhaps several weeks after a complaint first becomes problematic. GP inappropriate referrals may be made because the GP is unaware that an alternative service exists or that the complaint could have been dealt with in another specialist unit.

7. The Department stated that to minimise the number of different approaches are being considered, namely:

• A&E staff would try to educate the patient/family so they do not continue to re-attend inappropriately.
• The Health and Social Care Board is considering a media campaign via TV screens in GP surgery waiting rooms to promote a message of when it is not appropriate to attend A&E.
• The HSC Board is also working with each Trust to develop local forums with GP colleagues to discuss the number of inappropriate attendances per month by GP practice. The Southern Trust has established a group, Northern and Western also have had meetings and Belfast is in the process of identifying GP links.
• The HSC Board is working with Trusts to produce a directory of services updated by early 2010 which will serve two purposes: to assist A&E staff on the types of community schemes they can avail of and divert people away from A&E; and to inform GP's of other types of services available, so that patients can be directed to the most appropriate service provision.

8. The Department provided an overview of the performance of each Trust against the four-hour target, which stated "by March 2008, 95% of patients attending any A&E department should either be treated and discharged home, or admitted within four hours of the arrival in the department."

9. The Department detailed the performance against another target which was set to address the discharging of patients stating that "by March 2008 all complex discharges from an acute setting will take place within 72 hours of the patients being medically fit and all other discharges within six hours of the patient being pronounced medically fit."

10. The Committee considered Dr McCormick's response at its meeting on 5 November 2009.

Conclusions

11. The Committee is concerned about increasing levels of attendances and inappropriate appointments to A&E departments. The numbers of patients who attend hospital for emergency care account for a growing proportion of hospital costs. The Committee considers that proactive management of potential high intensity users by Trusts and improved primary care management of patients can help reduce the costs of emergency care.

12. At its evidence session on 12 November 2009 on 'The Performance of the Health Service in Northern Ireland' the Committee clarified information contained within Dr McCormick's response which was subsequently published in the Committee's report[2]. A copy is available upon request.

Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Northern Ireland

(NIA 73/08-09, 14 January 2009)

1. The Committee wrote to Dr Andrew McCormick, Accounting Officer, Department Health, Social Services and Public Safety on 16 September 2009 detailing a number of questions to the above report. (See Appendix 2 (e))

2. The Committee focused on:

• The Department's performance against the PSA target for obesity.
• The lack of a specific diabetes strategy.
• The detection and targeting of diabetes for at risk groups.

3. Mr McCormick responded to the Committee on 13 October 2009 providing a full response to the Committee's questions. (See Appendix 2 (e))

4. The following is a summary of the response:

5. The Department stated that it was not in a position to comment on its performance against the PSA target for obesity but acknowledged that there are positive indications that progress has been made.

6. A health survey for Northern Ireland is expected to commence in early 2010 for publication in 2011.

7. The Committee considered Dr McCormick's response at its meeting on 5 November 2009.

8. At its evidence session on 12 November 2009 on 'The Performance of the Health Service in Northern Ireland' the Committee clarified information contained within Dr McCormick's response which was subsequently published in the Committee's report[3]. A copy is available upon request.

[1] The Northern Ireland Schools Modernisation Programme and the Investment Strategy for Northern Ireland

[2] 35/09/10R – Public Accounts Committee 'Report on The Performance of the Health Service in Northern Ireland'

[3] 35/09/10R – Public Accounts Committee 'Report on The Performance of the Health Service in Northern Ireland'

Appendix 1

Minutes of Proceedings
of the Committee
Relating to the Report

Thursday, 25 June 2009
Room 144, Parliament Buildings

Present: Mr Roy Beggs (Deputy Chairperson)
Mr Jonathan Craig
Mr John Dallat
Mr Trevor Lunn
Ms Dawn Purvis
Mr Jim Shannon

In Attendance: Ms Aoibhinn Treanor (Assembly Clerk)
Mrs Gillian Lewis (Assistant Assembly Clerk)
Miss Danielle Best (Clerical Supervisor)
Mr Darren Weir (Clerical Officer)

Apologies: Mr Paul Maskey (Chairperson)
Mr Thomas Burns
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin
Mr George Robinson
Mr Jim Wells

2.15pm The meeting opened in public session, the Deputy Chairperson in the Chair.

2.26pm Mr Craig joined the meeting.

5. Forward Work Programme.

Members discussed the draft forward work programme for the period September to December 2009.

Agreed: Members agreed to take evidence on the following reports:

i. The Management of Social Housing Rent Collection and Arrears; and Bringing the SS Nomadic to Belfast.

ii. Public Service Agreements – Measuring Performance; and Irish Sport Horse Genetic Testing Unit Ltd.

iii. Review of New Deal 25.

iv. Performance of the Health Service in Northern Ireland, including an update on Transforming Emergency Care in Northern Ireland, and Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.

v. Members agreed to defer the scheduling of a further report until mid-September 2009.

Agreed: Members agreed to take written evidence for the Fourth Composite Report on the following NIAO reports:

(a) Electronic Service Delivery within NI Government.

(b) Internal Fraud in the Sports Institute for NI.

(c) Financial Auditing and Reporting: 2007-2008.

3.00pm Ms Purvis left the meeting.

Agreed: Members agreed to consider updates on how the departments are progressing with the Committee's recommendations in previous reports, initially in writing but where appropriate through oral evidence sessions.

Agreed: Members agreed to revisit the issue of NIAO reports being considered by Statutory Committees, at next week's meeting.

[EXTRACT]

Thursday, 15 October 2009
Room 144, Parliament Buildings

Present: Mr Paul Maskey (Chairperson)
Mr Roy Beggs (Deputy Chairperson)
Mr John Dallat
Rt Hon Jeffrey Donaldson MP MLA
Mr David Hilditch
Mr Trevor Lunn
Mr Patsy McGlone
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin
Mr Jim Shannon

In Attendance: Ms Aoibhinn Treanor (Assembly Clerk)
Mr Phil Pateman (Assistant Assembly Clerk)
Miss Danielle Best (Clerical Supervisor)
Mr Darren Weir (Clerical Officer)

Apologies: Mr Jonathan Craig
Ms Dawn Purvis

2.03pm The meeting opened in public session.

3. Matters arising:

2.08pm Mr Shannon entered the meeting.

Correspondence received from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure

Members considered and noted correspondence received from Mr Paul Sweeney, Accounting Officer of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, providing information requested by the Committee in relation to its draft Fourth Composite Report.

[EXTRACT]

Thursday, 5 November 2009
Room 144, Parliament Buildings

Present: Mr Paul Maskey (Chairperson)
Mr Roy Beggs (Deputy Chairperson)
Mr Jonathan Craig
Rt Hon Jeffrey Donaldson MP MLA
Mr David Hilditch
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin
Ms Dawn Purvis
Mr Jim Shannon

In Attendance: Ms Aoibhinn Treanor (Assembly Clerk)
Mr Phil Pateman (Assistant Assembly Clerk)
Miss Danielle Best (Clerical Supervisor)
Mr Darren Weir (Clerical Officer)

Apologies: Mr John Dallat
Mr Trevor Lunn
Mr Patsy McGlone

2.04pm The meeting opened in public session.

2.05pm Mr Donaldson entered the meeting.

2.16pm Mr Hilditch entered the meeting.

2.19pm Mr Craig left the meeting.

2.20pm Mr McLaughlin left the meeting.

2.20pm The Committee went into closed session.

4. Fourth Composite Report.

Response from the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety

Members noted the response from Dr Andrew McCormick, Accounting Officer, Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety relating to information requested by the Committee for its forthcoming report.

2.22pm Mr McLaughlin entered the meeting.

Response from the Department of Finance and Personnel

Members noted the response from Mr Stephen Peover, Accounting Officer, Department of Finance and Personnel relating to information requested by the Committee for its forthcoming report.

Agreed: The Committee agreed to forward this response to the Committee for Finance and Personnel for information.

Agreed: The Committee also agreed to reply to the Department requesting further information.

Response from the Department of Education

Members noted the response from Mr Will Haire, Accounting Officer, Department of Education relating to information requested by the Committee for its forthcoming report.

[EXTRACT]

Thursday, 21 January 2010
Room 144, Parliament Buildings

Present: Mr Paul Maskey (Chairperson)
Mr Roy Beggs (Deputy Chairperson)
Mr Jonathan Craig
Mr John Dallat
Rt Hon Jeffrey Donaldson MP
Mr David Hilditch
Mr Trevor Lunn
Ms Dawn Purvis
Mr Jim Shannon

In Attendance: Ms Aoibhinn Treanor (Assembly Clerk)
Mr Phil Pateman (Assistant Assembly Clerk)
Miss Danielle Best (Clerical Supervisor)
Mr Darren Weir (Clerical Officer)

Apologies: Mr Patsy McGlone
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin

2.04pm The meeting opened in public session.

2:05pm Mr Craig entered the meeting.

2:07pm Ms Purvis entered the meeting.

2:09pm Mr Dallat left the meeting.

2:11pm Mr Dallat entered the meeting.

5. 4th Composite Report.

Correspondence from the Department of Finance and Personnel

Members noted correspondence from Mr Stephen Peover, Accounting Officer, Department of Finance and Personnel in response to the Committee's previous request for further information relating to legal challenges on procurement and the recoupment of fees.

Correspondence from the Department of Finance and Personnel

Members noted correspondence from Mr Stephen Peover, Accounting Officer, Department of Finance and Personnel in response to the Committee's previous request on electronic service delivery in Government departments.

Agreed: Members agreed to commence the compilation of the 4th Composite Report to be considered at a later date.

[EXTRACT]

Thursday, 3 June 2010
Room 144, Parliament Buildings

Present: Mr Paul Maskey (Chairperson)
Mr Roy Beggs (Deputy Chairperson)
Mr John Dallat
Mr David Hilditch
Mr Jim Shannon

In Attendance: Ms Aoibhinn Treanor (Assembly Clerk)
Mr Phil Pateman (Assistant Assembly Clerk)
Miss Danielle Best (Clerical Supervisor)
Mr Darren Weir (Clerical Officer)

Apologies: The Lord Browne
Mr Trevor Lunn
Mr Patsy McGlone
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin
Mr Stephen Moutray
Ms Dawn Purvis

2:39pm The meeting opened in public session.

7. Consideration of Draft Committee Fourth Composite Report

Pages 2 – 3 read and agreed

Page 4 read, amended and agreed.

Pages 5 – 6 read and agreed.

Page 7 read, amended and agreed.

Pages 8 – 16 read and agreed.

Consideration of the Executive Summary

Page 1 read and agreed.

Agreed: Members agreed the correspondence for inclusion in the report.

Agreed: Members ordered the report to be printed.

Agreed: Members agreed that the report would be embargoed until 00.01 am on Thursday, 24 June 2010.

[EXTRACT]

Appendix 2

Correspondence

Chairperson's Letter of 23 November 2009 to
Mr Stephen Peover

Public Accounts Committee
Room 371
Parliament Buildings
BELFAST BT4 3XX

Tel: (028) 9052 1208
Fax: (028) 9052 0366
E: pac.committee@niassembly.gov.uk
aoibhinn.treanor@niassembly.gov.uk

Mr Stephen Peover
Department of Finance and Personnel
Rathgael House
Balloo Road
BANGOR
BT19 7NA 23 November 2009

Dear Stephen,

PAC Composite Reports

The Committee has agreed to produce a composite volume detailing progress on selected NIAO reports which have not been the subject of an evidence session.

I attach a series of questions dealing with the extent to which Departments had followed good practice in planning, controlling and monitoring the electronic service delivery (ESD) programme covered in the NIAO Report 'Electronic Service Delivery within NI Government Departments'.

I should be grateful if you would let me have your reply to the points raised by 4 December 2009.

I am copying this letter to David Thomson, Treasury Officer of Accounts, for information.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Maskey
Chairperson

Question 1

Paragraph 1.5 (5th bullet point) notes that electronic service delivery offers opportunities to generate efficiency gains. How many of the key services contained within the Executive's 100 per cent target have delivered, or plan to deliver, efficiency gains with a financial value of £1 million or more?

Question 2

In paragraph 2.10, DFP highlighted three projects (DOE's e-PIC planning system, DETI's online Insolvency Service and DEL's interactive careers information) as demonstrating a strong approach to early delivery of e-enabled services. What were the original timescales for each of these individual projects to be fully delivered and what have been the actual outcomes for each one.

Question 3

Paragraph 2.22 indicates that departments had not pro-actively addressed issues such as targeting hard-to-reach groups and identifying barriers to the take-up of electronic services. Has DFP subsequently issued guidance to help departments put right these issues?

Question 4

Paragraphs 2.37 to 2.38 identified the need for departments to review their current electronic services, establish performance targets and, where necessary, develop take-up action plans. How many of the 81 key services undertook such reviews and developed take-up action plans?

Question 5

Paragraphs 2.42 and 2.43 outlined the importance of undertaking post-completion evaluations. How many of the key services have now been evaluated and how have the lessons from these evaluations been disseminated across the wider public sector?

Question 6

Paragraph 3.18 indicates that departments should not simply put existing services on-line, but that departments and public bodies should work together to develop joined-up services which cross departmental boundaries. Are there any examples of new joined-up electronic services having been developed since the publication of the C&AG's report?

Question 7

Paragraph 3.28 noted that DFP's Delivery and Innovation Division had commissioned a review of the large number of central government websites in existence. What was the outcome of this review and what actions have been taken to make it easier for citizens to access information and to transact business with Government?

Question 8

Figure 3.6 identifies a number of lessons for successful delivery of electronic services. What has DFP done to ensure these lessons are rolled out across the wider public sector?

Correspondence of 15 January 2010 from
Mr Stephen Peover

From the Permanent Secretary
Stephen Peover
Rathgael House, Balloo Road
BANGOR BT19 7NA

Tel No: 028 9127 7601
Fax No: 028 9185 8184
email: stephen.peover@dfpni.gov.uk

Mr Paul Maskey
Chair of Public Accounts Committee
Room 371
Parliament Buildings
BELFAST
BT4 3XX 15 January 2010

Dear Paul

PAC Composite Reports
NIAO Report 'Electronic Service Delivery within NI Government Departments'

Thank you for your letter of 23 November 2009 in which you asked a series of questions dealing with the extent to which departments had followed good practice in planning, controlling and monitoring the electronic service delivery (ESD) programme covered in the above NIAO Report.

The questions required comprehensive input from all 11 departments. The extension to your deadline was very helpful in enabling us to collate the requested information.

Our response is set out in the Appendices to this letter.

Yours sincerely

Stephen Peover

Appendix 1

NIAO Report 'Electronic Service Delivery within NI Government Departments'

Background

1. For ease of reference, Appendix 2 summarises the list of "key" services as referenced in the NIAO report, broken down by Department. In compiling this response we are grateful for input from the various Departments, which are responsible for implementing the various services.

2. The target for Electronic Service Delivery, established in 2002, was aimed at encouraging Departments to consider how technology might be used to improve service to citizens. The cross Departmental eGovernment Board, which agreed the initial target, considered absolute compliance with the target to be secondary to making good progress in the e-enabling of services. Ministers were free to define the "key" services for their own departments, within the agreed parameters of those services being those which were :

• highly valued by citizens;
• those of high volumes; and
• those where citizens were legally obliged to transact with Government.

3. Departments placed particular emphasis on establishing an online presence and publishing information about their work.

Question 1

4. Paragraph 1.5 (5th bullet point) [of the NIAO report] notes that electronic service delivery offers opportunities to generate efficiency gains. How many of the key services contained within the Executive's 100 per cent target have delivered, or plan to deliver, efficiency gains with a financial value of £1 million or more?

Response to Question 1

5. Departments have advised us that 7 of the "key" services, contained within the Executive's 100 per cent target for key services, have delivered efficiency gains with a financial value of £1 million or more. These are:

• DSD Assessment and Payment of Social Security Benefits
• DARD Cattle Testing
• DARD Cattle Movement Recording
• DOE DVA Telephone / Electronic Booking / Payment for Practical Driving Tests
• DOE Electronic Booking of and Payment for MOT Tests
• DRD Information Sharing - Northern Ireland Street Works Register and Notification System (NISRANS)
• DETI Provision of Services - Insolvency Service's new integrated ICT system

A further 2 key services plan to deliver efficiency gains of this order. These are:

• DOE Planning ePIC system
• DOE Automated First Registration and Licencing of Vehicles

It should be noted that, for most of the key services, the projects were for the purpose of providing better service to citizens, or providing better access for citizens to information and services; they were not specifically designed to deliver efficiency gains. Many of the projects were low cost measures, costing much less than the £1 million quoted.

Question 2

6. In paragraph 2.10, DFP highlighted three projects :

• DOE's e-PIC planning system,
• DETI's online Insolvency Service and
• DEL's interactive careers information

…..as demonstrating a strong approach to early delivery of e-enabled services. What were the original timescales for each of these individual projects to be fully delivered and what have been the actual outcomes for each one.

Response to Question 2

7. a. DOE's e-PIC Planning System

The Department of the Environment has advised us that the ePIC project commenced in spring 2005, with an original timescale for implementation by April 2006. We are advised that the full ePIC solution is expected to be implemented in spring 2010.

DoE advised that over-runs on the project arose from a combination of factors. These included the dimension and complexity of the requirements having been underestimated; the design and software development phases having been technically challenging; high levels of personnel turnover within the project teams with loss of experience and continuity; and, given the passage of time, changes and additions which had to be made to the original requirements.

A number of e-planning applications have been introduced in the interim, as partial implementation of ePIC. These include a new Planning Service Web portal which combined the internet and intranet sites within an integrated information architecture. The new internet site provides easy to access information for the public including official planning statistics and a wide range of planning policies and procedures. It provides interactive tools to allow the public to complete a planning application and to calculate planning fees , a Planning Explorer browser to interactively query the planning application database and to track the progress of applications, including those being brought to district councils as part of the statutory consultation process, a Development Plan viewer allows the public to view plans and to interactively interrogate the maps to reveal allocations, designations, planning proposals and policies contained in the Development Plan. The full ePIC solution when implemented in 2010 will facilitate, amongst other things, on-line submission of planning applications and payment of fees, e-consultations and an on-line Property Certificates service.

b. DETI's online Insolvency Service

The Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment has advised us that the Insolvency Service e-Business project was scheduled for completion in April 2006 and was actually complete in October 2006.

DETI advised that the delay was due to technical problems which were greater than anticipated by the supplier, resulting in additional professional staff and time required to deliver the project to DETI's specification. However, as a result of this extra time the project was able to deliver efficiency gains of almost £4m by the end of March 2009.

c. DEL's Interactive Careers Information

The Department for Employment and Learning advised us that the project was due to be completed on 21 July 2004 and was completed by early June 2004 and within budget.

The Project Management Evaluation report includes an assessment of how well objectives were achieved and a comparison of actual against planned costs. All objectives detailed in the PID appear to have been successfully achieved. I note that the project was completed within the timescale and the budget.

Question 3

8. Paragraph 2.22 indicates that departments had not pro-actively addressed issues such as targeting hard-to-reach groups and identifying barriers to the take-up of electronic services. Has DFP subsequently issued guidance to help departments put right these issues?

Response to Question 3

9. Guidance to help departments was issued in 2003, when the eGovernment Unit published a Digital Inclusion Strategy aimed at addressing the gap between those who had access to computers and had the skills to use them, and those who had not. Implementation of the Strategy led to a number of significant initiatives aimed at targeting "hard to reach" groups and these included :

• Public internet access points – these include, for example, kiosks in public areas like hospitals and shopping centres, as well as PCs with internet access in public libraries. The kiosks brought together, electronically, some strands of government services, enabling citizens to centrally access services such as vehicle licencing, benefits information and MOT testing.
• Silver surfers – an initiative in partnership with Business in the Community (including volunteers from the private and public sectors) to promote and encourage use of the internet by the elderly population.
• MyGroupNI – establishment of local web hosting infrastructure enabling local community groups / organisations, which were economically excluded and / or thought to be digitally "hard to reach", to have actively used community web sites.
• Everybody Online – a CD was issued to every household in Northern Ireland explaining how to get access to the internet. Allied to this, DFP Project Managers conducted training sessions, targeted at demographic groups across the Province (e.g. elderly, rural areas).

10. The number of citizens making use of a computer with internet access has increased from 46% in 2003 to 76% in 2009. These figures are based on the NI Omnibus Survey through the NI Statistics and Research Agency.

11. In addition, DFP issued a research report from the Consumer Council "Getting through to Government" http://www.dfpni.gov.uk/getting_through_to_government_-_2007.pdf as guidance to help departments on how to target hard to reach groups.

Question 4

12. Paragraphs 2.37 to 2.38 identified the need for departments to review their current electronic services, establish performance targets and, where necessary, develop take-up action plans. How many of the 81 key services undertook such reviews and developed take-up action plans?

Response to Question 4

13. The recommendation for Departments to review their current electronic services was fulfilled by a major review of citizen facing electronic information services and transactions needed to establish the NI Direct website, which went live in March 2008. This required a root and branch review of such citizen facing content as described in the response to question 6 below. In addition, Departments report that approximately one third of the key services which they identified were subject to other reviews and take up plans were developed for one fifth of key services.

Question 5

14. Paragraphs 2.42 and 2.43 outlined the importance of undertaking post-completion evaluations. How many of the key services have now been evaluated and how have the lessons from these evaluations been disseminated across the wider public sector?

Response to Question 5

15. Departments have advised us that 58 of the key services identified were later subject to post completion evaluations. A further 5 are planned but not yet completed. For many of the remaining 18 projects the nature and low cost of the electronic service provided were considered not to warrant such an evaluation.

16. The lessons learned from such evaluations, together with the recommendations contained in this NIAO report and best practice guidance issued by the Cabinet Office, have been incorporated in the NICS Channel Strategy published in 2009. The Delivery and Innovation Division has disseminated good practice in electronic service delivery through a series of high profile eGovernment events over recent years. These events, which were free to business managers across the entire public sector, were used to showcase exemplars in electronic service delivery and to share experiences and lessons learned.

Question 6

17. Paragraph 3.18 indicates that departments should not simply put existing services on-line, but that departments and public bodies should work together to develop joined-up services, which cross departmental boundaries. Are there any examples of new joined-up electronic services having been developed since the publication of the C&AG's report?

Response to Question 6

18. There are a number of examples of new joined-up electronic services having been developed since the publication of the C&AG's report:

Open Data NI

19. www.opendatani.info was recently developed and is designed to improve citizen access to a wide range of public information, ensuring that public sector information is made as simple as possible for citizens to locate and use. It aims to increase public access to non-personal public information and data produced by NI Government Departments, agencies and NDPBs for use by citizens or developers (e.g. for mash-up applications). The site, which was launched by the Finance Minister in Aug '09, currently houses data for locating GPs, surgeries, hospitals, as well as transport data from Translink, including bus stop locations, bus and rail timetables.

Kiosks

20. The deployment of public internet access kiosks, in public areas like hospitals and shopping centres, is an example of electronically joining-up government services. The kiosks have piloted the bringing together of selected strands electronic government services, enabling citizens to centrally access services such as vehicle licencing, benefits information and MOT testing.

Flooding Incident Line

21. The Flooding Incident Line is another good example of joined-up government, benefiting the citizen. It provides the citizen with a single telephone number (0300 2000 100) to report flooding incidents, regardless of which of the three Flooding Response Agencies (Rivers Agency, Roads Service and NI Water) is responsible. NI Direct has operated this 24*7*365 triage service since 1 January 2009.

NI Direct Phase 1

22. Another example is the NI Direct Phase 1 telephony pilot. NI Direct started piloting a new single telephone number service for a selected number of government Department "Anchor Tenants" in October 2008. The new three digit telephone number (101) initially fronts selected services across the Planning Service, Land and Property Services, General Registry Office and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, staffed (in modern customer contact centres) by a mixed public sector/private sector workforce model. The objective is to provide a high quality front-end service to citizens, which is consistent across numerous services. Lessons learned from Phase 1 will inform the wider NI Direct (Phase 2) Programme, which is discussed below.

NI Direct Website

23. The NI Direct website www.nidirect.gov.uk is a further example of Departments and public bodies working together to develop joined-up services, which cross departmental boundaries. Northern Ireland was the first devolved administration to develop a website for citizens based services on GB's Directgov. It is a further step in using electronic service delivery, including making wider use of online transactions. NI Direct has embraced the latest web technologies, social media and web design to improve accessibility.

24. The NI Direct website was successful in meeting its main target – to be available for citizens in NI by 31 March 2009, in line with the target in the Northern Ireland Executive's Programme for Government. This was a significant achievement, given the challenge of working across departmental boundaries.

25. All departments were represented on a project board responsible for the strategic development of the website and an Operational Board was set up to develop the content and ensured that it was clearly focused on the citizen. The website quickly established itself and was used as the premier site in Northern Ireland for information and advice on swine flu, a fact which led to its formal launch by the Minister of Finance and Personnel in May 2009.

26. The site reached the 1 million page impression target on 4 August 2009. www.nidirect.gov.uk has grown steadily with 2,453,414 page impressions and 892,459 visits. (as at 27 Nov '09). The use of SmartSource Data Collection for the first time on any Northern Ireland central government website has enabled much more accurate and detailed reporting on visitors and areas of interest.

27. NI Direct website provides a powerful new platform to help departments reach their main target audiences. This is a trusted digital channel that makes it easier for the citizen to interact with government. The NI Direct website has the potential to reduce (more expensive) telephone traffic and provide citizens with a better experience, at a time that suits them.

Question 7

28. Paragraph 3.28 noted that DFP's Delivery and Innovation Division had commissioned a review of the large number of central government websites in existence. What was the outcome of this review and what actions have been taken to make it easier for citizens to access information and to transact business with Government?

Response to Question 7

29. The outcome of this review was the conclusion there were too many NI Government websites and that there should be one primary citizen-facing website for central government information and services. This was implemented in March 2009 in the form of the NI Direct website.

30. The response to Question 6 described the establishment of the NI Direct website. Without repeating the same answer, the new NI Direct website has undoubtedly made it easier for citizens to access information and to transact business with Government and the next related piece of work will be rationalise and consolidate the relatively large number of other government websites.

31. To date, 90 NI Government websites have been identified as valid candidates for rationalisation. "Rationalise" means to reorganise and integrate Government websites. Some will be closed down; some integrated into the Departmental parent website whilst others will remain as is because, for example they are independent of Government or relate to statutory advisory bodies.

32. Migration of citizen-facing content from Departmental websites to NI Direct means to bring together (separate parts), and in the process develop & transform information and services from multiple Government websites across to NI Direct. Once the content, tools and transactions have been moved across to the NI Direct platform, they are then removed from the Department/Agency websites so that NI Direct becomes the single point of citizen-facing information and transactions and the only website through which they can be accessed. NI Direct is continuing to work closely with departments in the identification of services to offer online.

33. The NI Direct Online Project Board agreed to split the next phase of project into two separate projects:

• NICS wide consolidation of content (to identify "corporate content", citizen-facing content & commercial content); and
• Enterprise-wide Content Management System (for all internet & intranet websites) to deliver a high quality and consistent web presence and contact centre service.

34. The other initiatives highlighted and discussed in more detail in response to Question 6 (e.g. NI Direct Phase 1 telephony pilot, Flooding Incident Line, NI Direct Phase 2 Programme and Open Data NI) will also make it easier for citizens to access information and to transact business with Government.

Question 8

35. Figure 3.6 identifies a number of lessons for successful delivery of electronic services. What has DFP done to ensure these lessons are rolled out across the wider public sector?

Response to Question 8

36. As noted above, in the response to Question 5, the Delivery and Innovation Division has disseminated good practice in electronic service delivery through a series of high profile eGovernment events and through the publication of the NICS Channel Strategy in 2009. In addition, DID staff, through their representation on many programme and project boards across the public and voluntary sectors, endeavour to ensure that such expert advice and guidance is put into practice.

Appendix 2 List of "Key" Services to be Delivered Electronically, by Dept

DETI	Provision of Services
	Information and advice
	Statistics collection
	Business Consultation
OFM/DFM	e-Legislation
	e-Participation (previously called e-Consultation)
	OFMDFM Websites & NI Portal Content
DRD	Information
	e-Consultation
	e-Transactions
	e-Tendering
	e-Procurement
	Information Sharing
DOE	e information
	e consultation
	Citizen access to register of Approved Driving Instructors
	Theory Examinations for Approved Driving Instructor candidates
	Theory Driving Tests
	Practical Driving Tests
	MOT tests
	Automated First Registration and Licencing
	Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
	Bus and Freight Re-licensing pilot
	Electronic Planning Information for Citizens - ePIC
	Waste Management Licensing and Certificates
DHSSPS	Publishing information via the Department's website
	Website publication of consultation documents & provision of electronic feedback facilities
	Website publication of information about public appointments
	Provision of online information about HPSS Pension schemes and entitlements
DFP	Provision of land registration Information
	Provision of birth death and marriage registration information
	Rates Collection
DFP	Disabled persons allowance
	Housing benefit
	Valuation List
	e-Procurement
	e-Tendering
DE	e-publication
	e-consultation
DEL	Searching and applying for a job
	Electronic publishing of Departmental policy and procedural information.
	Personalised Job Broking for individuals
	Managing Programme participation.
	Industrial and Fair Employment Tribunal application
	Redundancy Payments application
	Employer vacancy management
	Interactive Careers Information and Assistance
	Multi Channel access for Welfare reform
	Electronic Learning
DCAL	Information on DCAL
	Reporting
	E-consultation
	Electronic Libraries - Peoples Network
	Electronic Libraries - Web Portal
	Electronic Libraries - Library Management System
DARD	eConsultation
	Grants & Subsidies
	Cattle & Sheep Registration
	Cattle Testing
	Cattle Movement Recording
	Cattle/Meat Processing
	Live Cattle Marketing
	Farm Business Survey
	eLearning
	Benchmarking
	Animal Identification and Data Transfer
DSD	Corporate services to DSD and liaison with the other NI Departments
	Publication of information about the Department
	Development of policy and legislation relating to the Department's areas of responsibility
	Administration of funding for Urban Regeneration and Community Development
	Assessment and payment of social security benefits
	Provision of advice and information about social security benefits;
	Support for people in getting employment
	Handling of reviews and appeals
	Prevention & detection of benefit fraud, prosecution of offenders & recovery of benefit paid incorrectly
	Recovery of benefit paid in compensation cases
	Assessment of the financial circumstances of people applying for legal aid
	Provision of agreed services to the Department for Work and Pensions in Great Britain
	Establishing child support
	Maintaining child support
	Provision of agreed services to the Department for Work and Pensions in Great Britain.

Chairperson's Letter of 16 September 2009 to
Mr Paul Sweeney

Public Accounts Committee
Room 371
Parliament Buildings
BELFAST BT4 3XX

Tel: (028) 9052 1208
Fax: (028) 9052 0366
E: pac.committee@niassembly.gov.uk
aoibhinn.treanor@niassembly.gov.uk

Mr Paul Sweeney
Accounting Officer
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure
Interpoint, 20-24 York Street
Belfast
BT15 1AQ 16 September 2009

Dear Paul,

PAC Composite Report

The Committee has agreed to produce a composite volume detailing progress on selected NIAO reports which have not been the subject of an evidence session.

I attach a series of questions dealing with the main issues in the NIAO report on Internal Fraud in the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland (NIA 49/08-09 19 November 2008).

I would be grateful if you would let me have your reply to the points raised by 1 October.

I am copying this letter to David Thomson, Treasury Officer of Accounts, for information.

Yours sincerely

Paul Maskey
Chairperson
Public Accounts Committee

Internal Fraud in the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland (NIA 49/08-09 19 November 2008)

Q1. The Comptroller and Auditor General reported that at the date of publication, of the total £75,041 stolen, £10,449 had yet to be recovered from the fraudster. Please advise whether the Sports Institute has now recovered this sum. If not, why is this?

Q2. What specific improvements has the Department made in its arrangements to oversee the governance of its arm's-length bodies in response to this case?

Q3. What resources are available to the Department to undertake proactive and reactive counter-fraud work? In particular, do the Department, its NDPBs and other arm's-length bodies have access to enough appropriately skilled investigators to respond to suspicions of fraud?

Correspondence of 30 September 2009 from Mr Paul Sweeney

Chairperson's Letter of 16 September 2009 to Mr Will Haire

Public Accounts Committee
Room 371
Parliament Buildings
BELFAST BT4 3XX

Tel: (028) 9052 1208
Fax: (028) 9052 0366
E: pac.committee@niassembly.gov.uk
aoibhinn.treanor@niassembly.gov.uk

Mr Will Haire
Accounting Officer
Department of Education
Rathgael House
43 Balloo Road
Bangor BT19 7PR 16 September 2009

Dear Will,

PAC Composite Report

The Committee has agreed to produce a composite volume detailing progress on selected NIAO reports which have not been the subject of an evidence session.

I attach a series of questions dealing with the main issues relating to prompt payment in the education sector in the General Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland on Financial Auditing and Reporting 2007-08 (NIA 115/08-09 20 May 2009).

I would be grateful if you would let me have your reply to the points raised by 1 October 2009.

I am copying this letter to David Thomson, Treasury Officer of Accounts, for information.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Maskey
Chairperson
Public Accounts Committee

General Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General for
Northern Ireland: Financial Auditing and Reporting 2007-08 (NIA 115/08-09 20 May 2009)

Prompt Payment Practice and Performance in the Education Sector Report

Q1. Paragraph 5.3.7 - The Department of Education transferred to Account NI in April 2009. How has this impacted on the Department's prompt payment performance? Are there any resulting additional actions that the Department has taken?

Q2. Paragraph 5.3.20 and 21 - Revised guidance was issued by the Department in December 2007 to the Chief Executives of Education and Library Boards (ELBs) stressing the need to strive for improvement in prompt payment performance. To what extent have the ELBs been proactive in their approach to improving performance? Has performance improvement been made according to targets towards achieving Departmental targets and the 95 per cent best practice objective?

Q3. Paragraph 5.3.23 - The Comptroller and Auditor General considers it possible that lessons could be learnt from the health sector when it comes to managing prompt payment in the ELBs. The Department acknowledges that there may be an opportunity to share lessons between the two sectors and states that with the establishment of the new Education and Skills Authority it intends to draw upon best practice from across the public sector. Given the impending commencement of ESA on 1 January 2010, what level of liaison has the Department had with the health sector or any other public body as a means of developing and improving prompt payment practice and performance?

Q4. Paragraph 5.3.17 and 5.3.18 – It is noted that the key contributory factor for poor prompt payment performance by the ELBs is the timing between receipt, authorisation and forwarding of invoices for payment from schools and youth organisations. Please provide for each ELB an analysis of the problematic cases and details of what action has been taken to address these cases.

Q5. Paragraph 5.3.33 - To what extent has the Department and each of its arm's-length bodies been able to achieve prompt payment within ten days in line with the recommendations of Dear Accounting Officer letter (DFP) 12/08?

Correspondence of 14 October 2009 from Mr Will Haire

Rathgael House
Balloo Road
BANGOR
Co Down
BT19 7PR

Tel: 028 91 279309 (Network: 59309)
Email: will.haire@deni.gov.uk

Mr Paul Maskey
Chairperson
Northern Ireland Assembly
Public Accounts Committee
Room 371
Parliament Buildings
BELFAST
BT4 3XX 14 October 2009

Dear Paul

PAC Composite Report

I refer to your letter of 16 September detailing a number of questions in relation to the main issues on prompt payment in the public sector as detailed in the General Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland on Financial Auditing and Reporting 2007-08 (NIA 115/08-09 20 May 2009).

I must apologise for the delay in replying to you on this. This was due to an administrative oversight within my Department and arrangements have been put in place to ensure all future correspondence from the Committee is dealt with in an efficient and appropriate manner.

I have attached (at Annex A) a response to each of the questions raised in your letter and I will be happy to provide any further information you may require.

I am copying this letter to David Thomson, Treasury Officer of Accounts, for information.

Yours sincerely

Will Haire

General Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General for
Northern Ireland: Financial Auditing and Reporting 2007-08
(NIA 115/08-09 20 May 2009)

Prompt Payment Practice and Performance in the Education Sector Report

Q1. Paragraph 5.3.7 - The Department of Education transferred to Account NI in April 2009. How has this impacted on the Department's prompt payment performance? Are there any resulting additional actions that the Department has taken?

A1 Payment processing for DE transferred to Account NI 6 April 2009. Many payments for the latter part of March and for April fell into the cutover period between the legacy system being closed down and invoices being forwarded to Account NI for processing and payment. A dip in prompt payment figures was expected during this transitional period and staff had been made aware of this at pre go-live Account NI Awareness Sessions.

However, steps were taken to minimise the impact of the transition to Account NI on the Department's prompt payment performance. For example, postcards were issued to the Department's suppliers prior to go-live advising them to send all invoices for payment to Account NI from April onwards. Communication, via email, staff magazine and a presentation to key users on the need for business areas to receipt goods and authorise payments in a timely basis was delivered. The Department's prompt payment performance and reporting is a standing item on the DE Account NI User Group Agenda and a monthly report is provided to the Departmental Board.

Further work is progressing to ensure business areas move towards Account NI's 'No Purchase Order – No Pay' policy, and the Department aims to implement this policy across DE from 1 November. It is envisaged that increased use of the purchase order system will lead to more timely invoicing and receipting of goods and services.

Details of prompt payment figures for DE since moving to Account NI are set out in the table below:

2009-10 Financial Year	% paid within 30 days	% paid within 10 Working days
April	90%	40%
May	81%	53%
June	75%	55%
July	88%	72%
August	87%	71%

It should be noted that over 40% of DE's payments are made via the Evaluated Receipt Settlement (ERS) method of payment (i.e. Self Billing), for example, payments of Grants. While these payments are made via the Account NI iProcurement module, a purchase order is not issued nor an invoice received. Payments made by ERS are immediate, but as they are not invoice driven they are not included the prompt payment figures.

Q2. Paragraph 5.3.20 and 21 - Revised guidance was issued by the Department in December 2007 to the Chief Executives of Education and Library Boards (ELBs) stressing the need to strive for improvement in prompt payment performance. To what extent have the ELBs been proactive in their approach to improving performance? Has performance improvement been made according to targets towards achieving Departmental targets and the 95 per cent best practice objective?

A2 The ELB's have been proactive in their approach to improving performance by introducing a range of measures to improve and accurately record their prompt payment performance. One such measure was the introduction and distribution of date stamps to schools to allow them to record the goods received/invoice received date along with an amendment to the ELB system to allow the reporting to be based on the goods/invoice received date. This resulted in a consistent approach being adopted by all ELBs and an instant improvement to the prompt payment statistics in 2007-08.

Other measures introduced by the ELBs include the following:

• The regular issue of guidance to schools and other locations reminding them of the need for prompt processing of invoices, the procedures involved and the potential implications of late payment.
• Individual cases of late payment are investigated with the relevant school with a view to improving performance.
• The delivery of training and workshops which have provided an opportunity to re-iterate the requirements of prompt payment.

A detailed analysis of the action taken by each ELB is provided in response to question 4 below.

As part of the annual planning and performance process, the Department sets prompt payment targets for each ELB with an overall objective of working towards the 95% best practice target. However, in light of the structural problems outlined (in response to question 4) below, challenging but realistic Departmental targets are set based taking into consideration the previous years performance. In quarter 1 of the 2009-10 financial, all of the ELBs were on target to meet their annual prompt payment target.

Prompt Payment Performance (30 day target) – ELBs

ELB	2007-08 (Actual)	2008-09 (Actual)	2009-10 (Target)	2009-10 (Actual - Qtr 1)
BELB	80%	78%	85%	85%
SEELB	55%	60%	70%	81%
SELB	76%	80%	80%	90%
NEELB	74%	81%	80%	93%
WELB	75%	70%	75%	84%

Q3. Paragraph 5.3.23 - The Comptroller and Auditor General considers it possible that lessons could be learnt from the health sector when it comes to managing prompt payment in the ELBs. The Department acknowledges that there may be an opportunity to share lessons between the two sectors and states that with the establishment of the new Education and Skills Authority it intends to draw upon best practice from across the public sector. Given the impending commencement of ESA on 1 January 2010, what level of liaison has the Department had with the health sector or any other public body as a means of developing and improving prompt payment practice and performance?

A3 In preparation for the establishment of the Education and Skills Authority (ESA), the Department has been developing robust financial and governance arrangements, drawing on the good practice currently delivered by the Education and Library Boards (ELBs) and also looking to other government bodies on how the systems and processes with the ELBs can be improved.

The most significant barrier to improving the prompt payment performance in the education sector is the number and disparity of organisations that are in receipt of goods and invoices (i.e. mainly schools and youth centres). A means to addressing this issue, and one mainly adopted throughout the Health sector, is a greater use of information technology. The ESA Implementation Team has been investigating the use of i-procurement to improve and streamline the purchasing and payment processes. However, this will require a significant investment in upgrading the existing information technology system, and will be given due consideration whenever the current system is due for replacement. It would also not be sensible to undertake such a significant change in processes during the current period of change.

However, the ESA Implementation Team are currently considering how improvements can be made to the existing processes to improve the prompt payment performance of ESA and will look to learn lessons, not only from the Health sector, but also other government bodies whose structure may be more relevant to the education sector in Northern Ireland.

Q4. Paragraph 5.3.17 and 5.3.18 – It is noted that the key contributory factor for poor prompt payment performance by the ELBs is the timing between receipt, authorisation and forwarding of invoices for payment from schools and youth organisations. Please provide for each ELB an analysis of the problematic cases and details of what action has been taken to address these cases.

A4 The difficulties faced by each ELB tend to be common across all ELBs. Where problems do occur, individual ELBs contact the locations concerned (i.e. individual schools or youth organisations) with a view to addressing the matter and improving performance. The main problems common to all ELB's have been as follows:

• Deterioration of prompt payment performance over holiday periods due to schools employing term-time staff or staff on leave.
• Small schools often have teaching Principals, thus limiting the amount of available time for administrative duties. In addition, the smaller the school the greater the difficulty during periods of closure and absence.
• Lack of adequate clerical resources to carry out administrative tasks during term time. Administrative staff are mainly employed on a part-time basis and activities such as pupil attendance registers, school meals, ordering classroom materials and providing admin support to teachers often takes priority over invoice processing.
• Large schools and out-centres have a number of authorising signatories. Delays in submission of invoices occur because deliveries and invoices are checked within the individual department before being forwarded to the main office for input.
• Larger schools have significant budgets and tend to issue bulk orders to suppliers. These orders can involve multiple small items which need to be checked by teaching and technical staff, a resource intensive and time consuming task.

Under the arrangements for the Local Management of Schools it is the principal and governors of the school who have responsibility for the direct management of the school. The ELB has only limited influence in this area. Nonetheless, specific actions taken by each ELB to address the above problems have been as follows:

BELB

• Date stamps have been issued to all locations to record dates on invoices.
• Guidance was issued to schools and youth clubs on 4 March 2008. This guidance explained the management of and recording of disputed invoices and set out the implications of the Debt Regulations.
• Individual cases of late payment are investigated with the relevant location.
• Prompt payment performance is reviewed and reported on a monthly basis.

NEELB

• Date stamps have been issued to all locations to record dates on invoices.
• Guidance was issued to schools and is updated and re-issued on a regular basis.

SEELB

• Date stamps have been issued to all locations to record dates on invoices.
• Guidance was issued to schools and youth clubs in April 2008.
• In September 2009 the Board issued an "invoice under query" date stamp to all locations.
• The Board has made use of the Accounts Newsletter, Principals Newsletter, and LMS induction training courses to highlight the importance of processing invoices promptly.

SELB

• Date stamps have been issued to all locations to record dates on invoices.
• Guidance was issu ed to schools in January 2008, and recent circulars 2009/65 and 2009/102 to schools have re-emphasised the need for prompt payment.
• Regular communication with firms and schools to ensure prompt processing and payment is undertaken.

WELB

• Date stamps have been issued to all locations to record dates on invoices.
• In October 2007 the Board held a series of 5 one day financial training sessions for school based administrative staff which included the topic of prompt payment and the importance of recording accurately the date invoices are received.
• In April 2008 a similar session was held for school Principals.
• In February 2009 the Board issued a circular to all locations asking for invoice authorisation procedures to be treated as a priority and the need to speed up the arrangements for passing invoices to the Board for payment.
• The Board has recently introduced new procedures at the headquarters accounts office to improve performance.

Q5. Paragraph 5.3.33 - To what extent has the Department and each of its arm's-length bodies been able to achieve prompt payment within ten days in line with the recommendations of Dear Accounting Officer letter (DFP) 12/08?

Answer 1 gives details for DE.

The ten day prompt payment statistics for the Department's arm's length bodies are as follows:

Department / ALBs	Quarter 4 2008-09	Quarter 1 2009-10
BELB	27%	22%
NEELB	38%	52%
SEELB	17%	26%
SELB	25%	27%
WELB	14%	23%
Staff Commission	100%	100%
CCMS	61%	61%
CCEA	63%	66%
Youth Council	100%	100%

Chairperson's Letter of 16 September 2009 to Mr Stephen Peover

Public Accounts Committee
Room 371
Parliament Buildings
BELFAST BT4 3XX

Tel: (028) 9052 1208
Fax: (028) 9052 0366
E: pac.committee@niassembly.gov.uk
aoibhinn.treanor@niassembly.gov.uk

Mr Stephen Peover
Department of Finance and Personnel
Rathgael House
Balloo Road
BANGOR
BT19 7NA 16 September 2009

Dear Stephen,

PAC Composite Reports

The Committee has agreed to produce a composite volume detailing progress on selected NIAO reports which have not been the subject of an evidence session.

I attach a series of questions dealing with the main issues relating to legal challenges by unsuccessful bidders in the General Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland on Financial Auditing and Reporting 2007-08 (NIA 115/08-09 20 May 2009).

I should be grateful if you would let me have your reply to the points raised by 8 October 2009.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Maskey
Chairperson
Public Accounts Committee

General Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General for
Northern Ireland: Financial Auditing and Reporting 2007-08
(NIA 115/08-09 20 May 2009)

Legal Challenges by Unsuccessful Bidders

Partenaire Challenge against the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP)

Q1. Paragraph 6.3.6:

In the legal challenge taken against the Department by Partenaire in the Workplace 2010 Project, the legal costs seem to be very high. Please outline the respective roles of the Programme's legal advisors, the Department Solicitors Office and Legal Council and the breakdown of costs between them.

McLaughlin and Harvey Challenge against the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP)

Q2. Paragraph 6.3.12 :

Did the Department of Finance and Personnel take legal advice in deciding to establish a framework agreement for Integrated Supply Teams to design and build a range of projects across the wider public sector? If so, was this advice in-house or external and how much did it cost?

McLaughlin and Harvey Challenge against the Department of Education (DE)

Q3. Paragraph 6.3.20:

During the process to appoint firms to a framework agreement for the design and construction, or construction only, of schools or other education projects in Northern Ireland, 11 clarification notes were issued to firms. What were the subjects of these clarification notes?

Did Central Procurement Directorate take legal advice on the content of these notes, particularly note 4 and, if so, was the advice in-house or external and how much did it cost?

Summary

Q4. Paragraph 6.3.25:

The C&AG's report makes the point that Government, by its nature, is likely to be involved in a wide range of potential litigation. This seems to be particularly the case on contract issues. What steps have been taken to ensure that Government has access to good quality, cost effective legal advice in this area?

Q5. Paragraph 6.3.26:

Please provide details of any other legal challenges involving public sector contracts which Departments have settled out of court in each of the past five years.

Correspondence of 6 October 2009 from Mr Stephen Peover

From the Permanent Secretary
Stephen Peover
Rathgael House
Balloo Road
BANGOR, BT19 7NA

Tel No: 028 91277601
Fax No: 028 9185 8184
E-mail: stephen.peover@dfpni.gov.uk

Mr Paul Maskey
Chairman
Public Accounts Committee
Room 371
Parliament Buildings
ELFAST
BT4 3XX 6 October 2009

Dear Paul

PAC Composite Reports

Thank you for your letter of 16 September.

I attach answers to the questions asked and a summary which was provided to the Finance and Personnel Committee which has undertaken its own review of legal challenges on procurement.

Yours sincerely

Stephen Peover

Partenaire Challenge against the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP)

Q1. Paragraph 6.3.6:

In the legal challenge taken against the Department by Partenaire in the Workplace 2010 Project, the legal costs seem to be very high. Please outline the respective roles of the Programme's legal advisors, the Department Solicitors Office and Legal Council and the breakdown of costs between them.

The total legal costs in respect of the Partenaire legal challenge were £1.018m. The breakdown of these costs is as follows:

• Legal Advisers: £907k
• Departmental Solicitors Office: £52k
• Barristers: £59k

It was decided that the programme's London-based legal advisors were best placed to lead the defence to the challenge due to the complex nature of the procurement. This work included collecting and preparing evidence statements, managing the collection and administration of detailed information to be exchanged with the plaintiff as part of the court process, obtaining specialist procurement-related legal advice and support in preparing for the judicial review hearing, briefing barristers and attending the hearings.

The Departmental Solicitor's Office was responsible for overseeing the Department's preparation of its defence and all interaction with the local courts.

The barrister costs were related to both preparation for, and attendance at, the judicial review hearing.

Q2. Paragraph 6.3.12

Did the Department of Finance and Personnel take legal advice in deciding to establish a framework agreement for Integrated Supply Teams to design and build a range of projects across the wider public sector? If so, was this advice in-house or external and how much did it cost?

Framework agreements are provided for under the EU Directives on public procurement and in the UK Public Contracts Regulations 2006 that implement the EU Directives.

OGC produced a guidance note on framework agreements for procurement practitioners. This guidance was developed with input from legal advisors at OGC. In addition, the EU Commission has issued an Explanatory Note on framework agreements.

Framework agreements are widely used in the public sector in GB and NI and CPD has successfully established a number of these. In the light of the above, CPD did not take specific legal advice in deciding to establish a framework agreement for Integrated Supply Teams.

Q3. Paragraph 6.3.20

During the process to appoint firms to a framework agreement for the design and construction, or construction only, of schools or other education projects in Northern Ireland, 11 clarification notes were issued to firms. What were the subjects of these clarification notes?

Did Central Procurement Directorate take legal advice on the content of these notes, particularly note 4 and, if so, was the advice in-house or external and how much did it cost?

A summary of the contents of the 11 clarification notes is set out in the Appendix A.

The Department of Education established a team to take forward the procurement of the framework agreement. This team included external procurement advisers and external legal advisers. Strategic advice was provided to the team by SIB and CPD provided the interface with the construction market place for the procurement process.

External advisers were responsible for drafting the clarification notes. As legal advisers were available within the DE team, CPD did not take additional legal advice on the clarification notes.

Q4. Paragraph 6.3.25

The C&AG's report makes the point that Government, by its nature, is likely to be involved in a wide range of potential litigation. This seems to be particularly the case on contract issues. What steps have been taken to ensure that Government has access to good quality, cost effective legal advice in this area?

On contract issues, CPD relies on the Departmental Solicitors Office (DSO) for legal advice. DSO are the in-house legal advisers to NI Government departments and are familiar with the public law setting matters like contract and procurement law. Their budget and costs are subject to public accounting rules. Although DSO is normally the primary 'port of call' for legal advice by NI government departments it is normal, either for reasons of the specialist skills required or the manpower needed, or a combination of these factors, to appoint external legal advisers for larger scale projects. The appointment of external legal advisers would normally be by way of a public procurement exercise to ensure good quality cost effective legal advice is secured.

Q5. Paragraph 6.3.26

Please provide details of any other legal challenges involving public sector contracts which Departments have settled out of court in each of the past five years.

CPD provided information on legal cases to the DFP Committee in April 2009 (please see attached). (Annex B)

It is not possible to provide a definitive list of other legal challenges which have been settled. There are a wide range of contracts in place and disputes over contractual terms and obligations often arise. Many of these are settled in the normal routine of contract management, sometimes incurring costs.

Appendix A

Northern Ireland Schools Modernisation Programme
Construction Framework Major Works

Summary of the 11 Clarification Notes issued during the tender period

(Note: Clarification Notes, 3, 4 and 11 were issued by DE to provide tenderers with additional information)

Clarification Note Number	Question Number	Subject Matter	Clarification provided
1	1	Application to extend the tender period	Application not granted
2	1	Application for scores awarded at PQQ stage to be provided to tenderers	Application not granted
3		Further documentation issued to tenderers for inclusion in the Framework Agreement: Contract clause amendments; Contractor and Consultant warranties; and Parent Company Guarantee (PCG).
4		Further information issued to tenderers on quality/price evaluation including details of how the: Price submission would be assessed and scored; Quality submission would be assessed and scored; and Quality and price scores would be combined to calculate the overall score.

 

Clarification Note Number	Question Number	Subject Matter	Clarification provided
5	1	Query whether the framework agreement was draft or final version	Advised it was the final version
	2 (i)	Query whether: fees should include specialist advisors	(i) Advised to include at secondary tender if required specifically by the project
	2 (ii)	fees should include for a cost consultant	(ii) Advised fees should include for a cost consultant
	3	Query regarding the inclusion of the CDM co-ordinator services	Advised that the CDM co-ordinator services would be provided by the Authority
5	4	Query regarding Financial issues	Tenderers were referred to sections within the tender documents covering parent company guarantee, performance bond, covenant or equivalent financial instrument
	1	Query whether design fees for RIBA Stage F onwards should be included	Advised not to include fees for RIBA Stage F onwards
6	2	Query regarding evaluation criteria	Tenderers were referred to clarification note 4
	3	Query on VAT registration details	Advised that each consortium member should provide VAT details
	4	Query when consortium agreement should be submitted	Advised consortium agreement should be submitted with tender submissions
	5	Query regarding need to include CDMC services	Referred to clarification note 5, answer to question 3
7	1	Query whether fee should be a percentage or a lump sum	Tenderers referred to tender document, volume 4.
	2	Query whether PQQ scores would be carried forward and added to tender score	Advised PQQ quality scores would not be carried forward to the tender quality score
	3	Query regarding additional KPIs	Advised to include those that would add value

 

Clarification Note Number	Question Number	Subject Matter	Answer
8	1	Query whether supply chain details should be submitted with tenders	Advised to do so if it adds value to the answer provided
	2	Request for diagrams, pictures and graphs to be submitted as appendices	Permitted but must be clearly cross referenced
	3	Request for permission to include CVs to support the answer to Q8	Permitted but must be clearly cross referenced
9	1a	Query regarding whether a schedule of hourly rates should be provided for each of the disciplines covering various grades	Advised to provide hourly rates for each discipline covering the grades identified in the tender documents
	1b	Query regarding how complicated secondary competitions would be	Advised that secondary competitions would be commensurate with the size and scale of the project and generally take 4-8 weeks to complete
9	2	Request for clarification as to which professional disciplines should be included in the fee submitted	Advised that Architectural, Building Services Engineer, Civil and Structural Engineers and any cost consultancy services should be submitted
	3	Clarification sought as to which framework members should deliver projects	Advised to identify which elements of the framework requirements will be undertaken by your supply chain partners as opposed to being completed utilising your in-house capability
10	1	Query regarding the meaning of 'consents and permissions'	Advised that consents and permissions relate to planning and/or regulatory consents and permissions and client approvals.
11		Clarification Note (No 11) required tenderers to confirm that they had received and taken into account tender Clarifications Notes 1 to 10.

Anonymised Attachment of Lessons Learned

The Department supplied full information to the Committee in response to its questions. However, given the inclusion of some sensitive details, the Committee agreed to publish instead the following anonymised lessons learned report.

Legal Challenges against Government Procurement

Background

European Legislation

1. Public Procurement is regulated in the European Union (EU) through the EC Treaty and Directives. These Directives are then transposed into national legislation by Member States. In addition to the requirements of European Community law, public procurement policy is also constrained by the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement.

2. Within this context the EU retains overall responsibility for the negotiation and development of WTO legislative proposals as they affect Member States and the UK, as the Member State, retains overall responsibility for the negotiation and development of EU legislative proposals in relation to Devolved Administrations. The current EU procurement directives were transposed into UK National law on 31st January 2006 as The Public Contracts Regulations (2006) SI 2006 No.5 (as amended) and the Utilities Contracts Regulations (2006) SI 2006 No.6 (as amended).

3. The purpose of the EU Procurement Rules and the UK Regulations is to open up the public procurement market and to ensure the free movement of supplies, services and works within the EU.

4. Compliance with EU procurement rules ensures compliance with GPA, where it applies, and GPA suppliers have the same rights as EU suppliers. GPA members include Canada, Hong Kong, China, Norway and USA.

Regulations

5. The EU Directives have been implemented into national law by Regulations. The current Regulations came into force on 31 January 2006 in the form of

• The Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No5); and
• The Utilities Contracts Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No6).

These Regulations do not extend to Scotland where separate but similar regulations have been made there.

Main Changes in 2006 Regulations

6. The 2006 Regulations introduced a number of significant changes including:

• a single set of Regulations for supplies, services and works;
• they expressly provide for framework agreements;
• the introduction of a 10 (calendar) day mandatory standstill period at the award stage before contract signature to permit unsuccessful tenders to consider taking actions in the courts; and
• the need to inform unsuccessful tenderers of the characteristics and relative advantages of the successful tender.

7. The introduction of a mandatory standstill period and the revised requirements for the provision of information to tenderers before a contract is awarded were introduced to allow an aggrieved tenderer the opportunity to have a contracting authority's award decision suspended by way of court intervention. Ultimately this can lead to the decision to award being set aside where claims are substantiated.

8. The result of the introduction of the mandatory standstill period has been greater awareness among tenderers of the opportunity to challenge decisions, not just at the award stage but at all stages of the procurement process. As a result there has been a marked increase in demands for debriefing and in the number of legal challenges.

9. It is also important to note that the EU procurement regime, described by the Directives and Regulations, is not static. It is subject to change and evolves, driven by the Courts' interpretations of European and domestic case law, European Commission Communications, new and revised Directives and amendment to the UK Regulations.

Current Position

10. Since 1 April 2007 thirteen of the cases brought against Centres of Procurement Expertise (CoPEs) and Departments have been concluded. A list of these cases is contained in Annex A. Details of cases which are on-going have not been included in this report as the matters in dispute have not yet been resolved and are still the subject of litigation.

11. The decisions made by the Northern Ireland High Court in relation to these and other cases illustrate the challenges facing public procurement.

12. Annex B provides more detail on individual cases however the plaintiff in each case has not been identified.

Annex A

List of Concluded Legal Cases since April 2007

Name of Contract

Provision of Agency Recruitment Services to BHSCT and SEHSCT

Supply of Automated Pharmacy Dispensing Equipment

NICS Provision of Temporary/Short Term Workers

NICS Financial Services Framework Agreement

Financial Services Framework (F/14286/05)

Independent Counselling Services for Schools NI

Workplace 2010

Carland Bridge

Term Contract for Maintenance and Improvement of Structures 2008

Collection, Rendering and Disposal of potentially contaminated meat, dead cattle and by-products and the collection of brain tissue for TSE sampling from animals potentially contaminated by Dioxins

Face to Face Debt Advice

Supply, Delivery and Installation of Office Furniture and Associated Items

Building Maintenance Measured Term Contract

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
Provision of Agency Recruitment Services to BHSCT and SEHSCT	HSC BSO Procurement and Logistics Service / DHSSPS	Injunctive Relief	22nd July 2009	22nd July 2009	£1,675
Total Legal costs, estimated or actual (broken down as follows): - Total Legal costs, actual (broken down as follows): a) in-house legal costs (in -house legal advisers) £ 1,100 b) legal costs (counsel) £ 575 c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) N/A d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) None
Background Injunctive relief was sought to prevent Belfast Trust placing restrictions on the selection of agency provider (due to financial position) alleging breech of contract by Belfast HSC Trust. An injunction was also sought against BSO PaLS although it is not clear why this was done as BSO PaLS is not the contracting authority.
Outcome Case withdrawn by plaintiff following clarification by BHSCT. Settled on Counsel's advice.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
Supply of Automated Pharmacy Dispensing Equipment	RSS (now known as HSC BSO Procurement and Logistics Service) / DHSSPS	Injunction to Prevent Award	6th February 2009	Settled 13th February 2009	Costs borne by parties
Total Legal costs, actual (broken down as follows): a) in-house legal costs (in -house legal advisers) £956.01 b) legal costs (counsel) £2932.50 c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) N/A d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) None
Background Following evaluation of a tender for the supply, delivery, installation and maintenance for an Automated Pharmacy Dispensing System for Belfast HSC Trust, mandatory standstill letters were issued to bidders. One of the unsuccessful bidders sought a debriefing and then issued a challenge to the award. This challenge was robustly defended by both RSS and its legal advisors as the terms and conditions in use were standard across NHS. However the bidder proceeded to seek a formal injunction the key element of which was the application of a costing model that considered costs over a 5-year period whereas the complainant maintained that the tender documents indicated costs would be measured over a 6-year period. It was determined that there was a lack of clarity in how the timescales had been presented in the tender documents, and inconsistency in the scoring at evaluation of an element of the complainant's bid.
Outcome The tender award has been stood down and the competition will be re-run.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
NICS Provision of Temporary/Short Term Workers	CPD/DFP	High Court Claim	02/05/2008	30/06/2008	Department's Legal costs: £4250.00
Total Legal costs, estimated or actual (broken down as follows): a) in-house legal costs (DSO or other internal legal advisers) £1250.00 b) legal costs (bought in external legal advice/counsel) £3000.00 c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) 0 d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) N/A
Background An unsuccessful supplier took proceedings against DFP on the decision not to include them on the Framework for the provision of temporary workers. The supplier applied to the court to suspend the decision to establish the Framework. The court refused to grant the suspension.
Outcome Challenge not upheld. Both parties paid their own costs on the advice of Counsel.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
NICS Financial Services Framework Agreement	CPD/DFP	High Court	13/11/2008	11/12/2008	£4,500 (estimated)
Total Legal costs, estimated or actual (broken down as follows): a) in-house legal costs (DSO or other internal legal advisers) £1,000 (estimated) b) legal costs (bought in external legal advice/counsel) £3,500 c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) nil d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) n/a
Background An unsuccessful supplier challenged the outcome of the evaluation of the Framework for Financial Services.
Outcome Both parties exchanged affidavits. The supplier withdrew the complaint prior to initial hearing. Each party agreed to pay their own legal costs on the advice of Counsel.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
Financial Services Framework (F/14286/05)	CPD/DFP	High Court	August 2006	November 2007	£62,419
Total Legal costs, estimated or actual (broken down as follows): a) in-house legal costs (DSO or other internal legal advisers) £3,837 b) legal costs (bought in external legal advice/counsel) £20,836 c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) £37,746 d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) _______ e) settlement protected by confidentiality clause No
Background An unsuccessful supplier challenged the award decision of the Financial Services Framework. CPD carried out a review of the process and agreed that the supplier be added to the list of participating companies.
Outcome The case was withdrawn.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
Independent Counselling Services for Schools NI	CPD/Dept of Education	High Court	April 2009	May 2009	NIL – DE Awarded Costs of £16k
Total Legal costs, estimated or actual (broken down as follows): DE awarded costs of £16k
Background The unsuccessful tenderer, did not agree with the outcome of the assessment of their bid.
Outcome Judge found in favour of DE / CPD and awarded costs

 

Name of contract	Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date commenced	Date Concluded	Total Cost
Workplace 2010	DFP	High Court Claim	July 2007	December 2007	£1.2m.
Total Legal costs, estimated or actual (broken down as follows): a) in-house legal costs (DSO or other internal legal advisers) £76,000 b) legal costs (bought in external legal advice/counsel) £942,000 c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) ________ d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) £225,000 e) settlement protected by confidentiality clause
Background The Workplace 2010 project was being procured using the competitive Negotiated procedure in accordance with the Public Services Contracts Regulations 1993. A High Court Claim was initiated in July 2007 against DFP by an unsuccessful supplier who was not taken forward to the final stage of the procurement. The case was settled between the parties in December 2007 before the full court hearing commenced. The grounds for challenging were based on a claim that the Authority's evaluation process, and subsequent decision to exclude the supplier from the next stage of the procurement, were in breach of the regulations. It was claimed that there was a breach of fairness and a number of errors in the evaluation of its tender.
Outcome The Court granted an interlocutory injunction, ruling that there was a fair issue to be tried. The issue was scheduled to be heard fully in early 2008, however in December 2007, the case was settled out of court. Although the Department was convinced that it could win the case, it concluded on the advice of Counsel that the balance of advantage for the Workplace 2010 Programme and the best value for money for the taxpayer would be achieved by seeking to agree a settlement. In negotiating a settlement, the Department agreed to acknowledge that there had been shortcomings in the ITN evaluation process and in the feedback to the unsuccessful supplier following that process. In return, the unsuccessful supplier accepted that, in light of further information released during the discovery process, these shortcomings did not alter the outcome of the ITN evaluation.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
Carland Bridge	Roads Service/DRD	High Court Claim	16/01/2008	13/05/2008	£138,097.35
Total Legal costs, actual (broken down as follows): a) in-house legal costs (DSO) £5,856.00 b) legal costs (counsel) £43,768.75 c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) £88,472.60 d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) Not applicable e) settlement protected by confidentiality clause No
Background A contractor, who had been unsuccessful at the prequalification stage of the A29 Carland Bridge Realignment, took court proceedings against Roads Service on the grounds that the prequalification procedure did not comply with the requirements of The Public Contracts Regulations 2006.
Outcome Case settled on Counsel's advice pre-hearing (no damages paid). Contractor's costs reimbursed by Department.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
Term Contract for Maintenance and Improvement of Structures 2008	Roads Service/DRD	High Court Claim	27/02/2008	16/09/2008	£112,210.50 (estimated)
Total Legal costs: a) in-house legal costs (DSO) £15,000 (estimated) b) legal costs (counsel) £29,372.50 c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) £67,838 d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) Not Applicable e) settlement protected by confidentiality clause No
Background A contractor, who had been unsuccessful at the prequalification stage of the Term Contract for Maintenance and Improvement of Structures 2008, took court proceedings against Roads Service on the grounds that the prequalification procedure did not comply with the requirements of The Public Contracts Regulations 2006.
Outcome Case was settled on Counsel's advice pre-hearing (no damages paid). Contractors' legal costs reimbursed by Department.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
Collection, Rendering and Disposal of potentially contaminated meat, dead cattle and by-products and the collection of brain tissue for TSE sampling from animals potentially contaminated by Dioxins	CPD/DARD	High Court Claim	Writ served on 18/05/09	14/10/09	£1,000 (estimated)
Total Legal costs, estimated or actual a) in-house legal costs (DSO or other internal legal advisers) £1,000 DSO costs (estimated) to be paid by Plantiff b) legal costs (bought in external legal advice/counsel) £0 c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) £0 d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) N/A e) settlement protected by confidentiality clause N/A
Background A tenderer was unsuccessful in the competition for the contract to render the carcasses of cattle which were potentially infected by feed contaminated by dioxins which came from the same source as that fed to pigs in the Republic of Ireland and which gave rise to the contaminated pork scare last year.
Outcome The company did not serve a Statement of Claim and a Summons for an Order to strike the case out was issued, which was heard on 14th October 2009. Following receipt of instructions from the Department an agreement was secured that the company would pay the Department's costs of the action and of the application as a condition of the Department's consent to the case being withdrawn. The matter was resolved at court on 14th October 2009.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
Face to Face Debt Advice	CPD/DETI	High Court	29 September 2009	The Applicant withdrew and each party bore its own costs	Est. £13,000 + VAT
Total Legal costs, estimated or actual: Final costs have not been calculated but are estimated £13K+VAT.
Background The tenderer's offer was unsuccessful for a contract to provide 'Face to Face Debt Advice' (Part B Service) on behalf of DETI. During the standstill period (voluntarily applied by CPD/DETI following the recent judgement in the Federal Security services case) the tenderer applied to the High Court seeking an interim order suspending the procedure leading to the award of the and/or in the alternative suspension of the implementation of the decision taken by the defendant contracting authority
Outcome (if settled) During proceedings the Applicant agreed to withdraw if both parties paid its own costs. In considering the offer from the Applicant DETI noted the following: Junior Counsel's opinion that there is "no manifest error" in the procurement process we (DETI and CPD) followed; there are strong grounds to defend the integrity of the procurement process and deter others from mounting similar speculative challenges; and DETI's costs had amounted to some £15k which we would not be able to recover in the event of settlement. Against this DETI noted : Junior Counsel's opinion that "it would be most unwise to approach this case on the basis that success is inevitable" and that "we should be slow to reject the proposed settlement"; In the event of success DETI would still face (according to DSO) unrecoverable costs amounting to some £15k; and contesting the action would lead to a delay in the award of a contract of at least two months with the consequent unrecoverable loss of debt advice services valued at £50k per month (notwithstanding the value of the public good that would be delivered by these services). DETI decided that the most appropriate course of action was to agree to the Applicant's offer.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
Supply, Delivery and Installation of Office Furniture and Associated Items	HSC Business Services Organisation, Procurement and Logistics Service (HSC BSO PaLS)	Injunction to prevent award of tender with case for hearing set-down for January 2010.	Wednesday 14 October 2009	As yet unknown – date of hearing set for 20 January 2010	Unknown as yet
Total Legal costs, estimated or actual (broken down as follows): - As yet unknown a) in-house legal costs (DSO or other internal legal advisers) £ 1,224* b) legal costs (bought in external legal advice/counsel) No fee yet received from Counsel c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) N/A d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) None e) settlement protected by confidentiality clause N/A * Please note that in-house legal costs for BSO are covered by a "Block" contract arrangement. The charge shown is that which would have applied if costs were billable per case.
Background 2 of the unsuccessful tenderers were 2 of the incumbent suppliers on the existing contract and will inevitably lose business following the award of contract.
Outcome (if settled) An injunction preventing HSC BSO PaLS from awarding this contract upon expiry of standstill period on 14 October 2009 was granted at the High Court of Justice NI on the same date. Following advice from Counsel BSO PaLS agreed to stand down award of contract. Both parties bore their own costs.

 

Name of contract	CoPE/Department Involved	Type of proceedings	Date Court proceedings commenced	Date case concluded	Total Cost including payments to the Complainant
Building Maintenance Measured Term Contract	Belfast Education and Library Board ELB (NIELB)	High Court Claim	October 2006	October/November 2009	Not known
Total Legal costs, estimated or actual (broken down as follows): a) in-house legal costs (DSO or other internal legal advisers) Nil b) legal costs (bought in external legal advice/counsel) £ 150,000 (currently being verified) c) contractor legal fees (if paid by contracting authority) Nil d) settlement (if not protected by confidentiality as part of the settlement) £ 100,000 (paid to BELB) e) settlement protected by confidentiality clause No Total estimated cost is therefore £50k
Background Ongoing challenge by unsuccessful tenderer on grounds of ambiguity to particular wording of tender documents pertaining to introduction of measured term contracts for building maintenance. Other grounds of challenge dismissed by High Court in December 2006 but injunction prohibiting Board from proceeding with tender exercise remained in place from October 2006 to July 2008. Proceedings now involve the unsuccessful tenderer, the successful tenderer (who couldn't perform the contract because of the injunction), the Board and the firm of quantity surveyors who drafted the relevant tender documents who have joined the board as co-defendants.
Outcome (if settled) Settled.

Chairperson's Letter of 23 November 2009 to Mr Stephen Peover

Public Accounts Committee
Room 371
Parliament Buildings
BELFAST
BT4 3XX

Tel: (028) 9052 1208
Fax: (028) 9052 0366
E: pac.committee@niassembly.gov.uk
aoibhinn.treanor@niassembly.gov.uk

Mr Stephen Peover
Accounting Officer
Department of Finance and Personnel
Rathgael House
Balloo Road
Bangor
BT19 7NA 23 November 2009

Dear Stephen,

PAC Fourth Composite Report

Thank you for your letter of 6 October in response to the Committee's inquiry by correspondence into legal challenges on procurement.

The Committee is alarmed at the high cost expended on legal advisers in London on the Partenaire case and seeks further justification for this.

Members also wish to know whether liability is accepted and fees recouped for legal advice that is later rejected.

I should appreciate your response by 15 January 2009.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Maskey

Chairperson
Public Accounts Committee

Correspondence of 12 January 2010 from Mr Stephen Peover

From the Permanent Secretary
Stephen Peover
Rathgael House
Balloo Road
BANGOR, BT19 7NA

Tel No: 028 91277601
Fax No: 028 9185 8184
E-mail: stephen.peover@dfpni.gov.uk

Mr Paul Maskey
Chairman
Public Accounts Committee
Room 371
Parliament Buildings
BELFAST
BT4 3XX 12 January 2010

Dear Paul

PAC Fourth Composite Report

Thank you for your letter of 23 November.

I attach the further information requested on the cost of legal advice on the Partenaire case and the separate issue of recoupment of fees.

Yours sincerely

Stephen Peover

Partenaire Challenge against the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP)

The Department agrees that the cost of legal advice provided to it in the Partenaire case was high, but believes this level of expenditure was necessary to defend robustly a challenge to the procurement of what was to be one of the largest property PFI transactions in the UK with a contract value of approximately £1.5bn. The consequences of failing to prepare a robust defence could have been significantly higher than the legal costs of defending it.

The legal work was undertaken by Counsel and by lawyers who had been contracted (by tender competition) to advise on the Workplace 2010 procurement. The work undertaken during the 9 months of the challenge was extensive and complex for the reasons given below.

Initial preparations

The Department's legal advisors reviewed all electronic and hard copy files held by the Department arising from evaluation of all of the bids. In litigation of this nature all documents relating to the complaint are disclosable to the plaintiff. In order to thoroughly evaluate the legal merits of the plaintiff's complaints and the Department's defence this documentation was reviewed in detail. The scale of the procurement meant that 75 individuals had been involved in bid evaluation generating extensive electronic and hard copy material during the 4 months of bid evaluation.

Injunction hearing

The second stage was to prepare the Authority's defence for the injunction hearing held in October 2007. This involved the preparation of a significant number of witness statements and exhibits to be presented as evidence to the court. The legal team interviewed witnesses, prepared their statements, prepared evidence for submission to the court and prepared a strategy for presenting the Department's case to the court.

Full Court Hearing

(i) Preparation:

The first step in this process was the disclosure of all evaluation material relating to Partenaire's bid to their legal advisors. This required the Department's legal advisors to redact all electronic and hard copy documents from the 75 evaluators to remove information relating to the other three bidders in the competition. Subsequently the Department's legal advisors had to undertake the preparation of witness statements and evidence gathering for the full hearing. The legal points due to be tested in the full hearing were different in nature from those to be tested by the injunction hearing so the statements and evidence for the injunction hearing could not be re-used and new statements and evidence were required for the full hearing.

Assessment of plaintiffs' documents:

(ii) The Department's legal advisors then had to review all documentation released to the Department by the plaintiff's legal team in relation to their complaint. This review informed the Department of the strengths and weaknesses of the plaintiff's case and let the legal advisors prepare a strategy for dealing with the plaintiff's complaints during the full hearing. Alongside these activities the Department's legal advisors prepared a number of submissions for the courts and represented the Department at all of the court appearances.

Resolution of Agreement

Finally, when Partenaire withdrew its challenge, the Department's legal advisors were also responsible for drafting and agreeing the resolution agreement between Partenaire and the Department.

Recoupment of fees

On the separate and more general point raised by the Committee's inquiry into legal challenges on procurement, if the Department commissions professional advice, whether from lawyers, accountants or other professions, it is obliged to pay for that advice. If the advice is rejected or not acted upon that does not in any way reduce the department's liability. If the advice was clearly wrong in some respect it might be possible to raise errors in the advice and seek an appropriate abatement of the fees charged. However it would have to be an error that was apparent at the time the advice was given and not a prognosis of future events such as the likely conduct of a third party where the prediction turned out to be inaccurate.

Chairperson's Letter of 16 September 2009 to Dr Andrew McCormick

Room 371
Parliament Buildings
BELFAST
BT4 3XX

Tel: (028) 9052 1208
Fax: (028) 9052 0366
E: pac.committee@niassembly.gov.uk
aoibhinn.treanor@niassembly.gov.uk

Dr Andrew McCormick
Accounting Officer
Department of Health, Social Services and Public
Safety
Castle Buildings
Stormont Estate
Belfast BT4 3SQ 16 September 2009

Dear Andrew,

PAC Composite Report

The Committee has agreed to produce a composite volume detailing progress on selected NIAO reports which have not been the subject of an evidence session.

I attach a series of questions dealing with the main issues in the NIAO reports on Transforming Emergency Care in Northern Ireland (NIA 126/07-08, 23rd April 2008) and Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Northern Ireland (NIA 73/08-09, 14th January 2009). I should be grateful if you would let me have an answer to the points raised by 8 October 2009.

As the issues examined in these reports relate to those dealt with in NIAO's report on The Performance of the Health Service in Northern Ireland, the Committee may ask further questions on the above reports at the evidence session of 12 November 2009.

Yours sincerely

Paul Maskey

Chairperson

Public Accounts Committee

Transforming Emergency Care in Northern Ireland (NIA 126/07-08, 23rd April 2008)

Paragraph 1.2:

Between 1999-2000 and 2006-07 there was a five per cent increase in attendances at A&E departments in NI hospitals. A review by PWC found that 24 per cent of such attendances were "inappropriate" and produced a range of recommendations to address this situation.

Have attendances at A&E departments decreased since 2006-07?

How do Trusts liaise with customers to address "inappropriate" use of A&E services? What follow-up procedures are followed to prevent repetition?

Paragraph 1.4:

The Department established a target that "by March 2008, 95 per cent of patients attending any A&E department should be either treated and discharged home, or admitted within four hours of their arrival in the department."

Was this target achieved across the Trusts?

Paragraph 1.8:

After peaking at 35,000 in 2004-05, the number of "trolley waits" (patients waiting more than two hours in A&E for a hospital bed) had fallen to 32,500 in 2006-07.

How many patients currently wait more than two hours in A&E for a hospital bed?

Paragraph 2.8:

The Department set a target that "by March 2008, all complex discharges from an acute setting will take place within 72 hours of the patient being declared medically fit and all other discharges within 6 hours of the patient being pronounced medically fit."

What progress have individual Trusts made against these targets to date?

Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Northern Ireland (NIA 73/08-09, 14th January 2009)

Paragraph 2.7:

Data on the numbers of admissions and bed days related to episodes of care where the primary condition was diagnosed as diabetes showed an increase in admissions between 2001-02 and 2006-07. Over the same period the number of emergency admissions had fallen as had the number of bed days involved.

What are the corresponding statistics for 2007-08/2008-09?

Paragraph 3.9:

The Department's PSA target is that the increase in obesity can be halted by March 2010.

What progress has been made to date in meeting this objective?

Paragraphs 3.12 and 3.13:

Why has the Department not established a specific diabetes strategy aimed at ensuring the success of its prevention and management programmes?

Paragraph 3.13:

Does the work which the Department carries out on the detection of diabetes and targeting at risk groups form part of a structured and formalised screening programme aimed at the early identification of those predisposed to Type 2 diabetes?

Paragraph 4.8:

There are no Public Service Agreement targets which relate to reducing the incidence of diabetes.

Does the Department intend to establish a target for reducing diabetes?

Paragraph 4.12:

Progress on building the evidence base for effective intervention on diabetes has been slow.

What steps has the Department taken to ensure that its approach to surveillance is comprehensive and timely enough to assure it and other departmental partners about obesity risk factors?

Correspondence of 13 October 2009 from Dr Andrew McCormick