Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act please can you provide the
following with regards to Common Purpose UK courses undertaken by
your staff between 1998 and 2008:

1. Details of the competitive tendering process and, where
applicable, durations of service contracts you have entered into
with Common Purpose.
2. Identities of submitters of rival bids to provide leadership
courses and details of the quotations they gave.
3. Copies of text of invitations to tender which Common Purpose
submitted tenders to your organisation in response to and in which
publications these invitations to tender were advertised.
4. Evidence submitted to your organisation by Common Purpose
demostrating they have the competence and expertise to provide the
services they offer, qualifications of all of their trainers who
have delivered courses to your staff and evidence submitted to you
by Common Purpose of their industry accreditations or
certifications and quality assurance processes.
5. Details of the nature and content of Common Purpose courses
undertaken by your staff.
6. Criteria used to select Common Purpose against other bidders and
evidence these criteria were applied properly and fairly.
7. Findings of any audits conducted by or on behalf of your
organisation into Common Purpose UK operations.
8. If competitive tendering was not applied to the procurement by
your organisation of services from Common Purpose (which I
understand is a legal requirement for public sector procurement and
requiring at least three bids) please provide an explanation of why
procurement rules were waived.

Yours faithfully,

Mr McGillivray

Thank you for contacting Scottish Enterprise. We aim to respond to all
enquiries within 3 working days.

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Please quote the reference number SE017727 in all correspondence.

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Best wishes

Scottish Enterprise
Tel: 0845 607 8787
Email: [2][email address]
Web: [3]www.scottish-enterprise.com

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Dear Mr McGillivray

Many thanks for your request below and apologies for the delay in getting
back to you, I have been trying to mail you over the last few days without
success however I hope this is the correct e-mail address after speaking
to your colleagues.

I would like to give you a bit of background to SE tender processes. SE
Procurement has only existed since April 2007 in the current form. Prior
to this, staff tendered their own contracts and there was not a central
log. From current logs, I do not see that Common Purpose have been
successful in any tenders over £50k however it is not to say they were
not below the thresholds and were done through SE departments direct.

SE permit single supplier routes for any commission under 5k. Over 5k we
also permit if supported by an approval to seek single tender form. This
approval does not need to come through the procurement team, however.
Reasons for going for a single tender include economic reasons - ie, a
supplier may have specific knowledge which would make it highly unlikely
that another supplier could submit a competitive price; technical reasons
- such as ownership of Intellectual Property; or for speed where a
particular supplier has knowledge that would take too long for another
supplier to build up in relation to our delivery timescales.

Over £50k most contracts are tendered openly or through OJEU, and now all
SE contracts are advertised through Public Contracts Scotland. If you can
give me a list of contracts you believe Common Purpose have tendered for I
will be able to get you the information you request but until I get this
there is no information that I am able to find.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards

Bonnie Nicolson
Procurement
Scottish Enterprise

Tel: 0141 228 2528

Find our advertised tender opportunities or register as a supplier at
[1]www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk

ü please consider the environment before printing this email.

_______________________________________________________________

Email: [FOI #16956 email]
Cc:
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Common Purpose Invitations To
Tender and Qualifications
Message:
Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act please can you provide the
following with regards to Common Purpose UK courses undertaken by
your staff between 1998 and 2008:

1. Details of the competitive tendering process and, where
applicable, durations of service contracts you have entered into
with Common Purpose. 2. Identities of submitters of rival bids to
provide leadership courses and details of the quotations they gave.
3. Copies of text of invitations to tender which Common Purpose
submitted tenders to your organisation in response to and in which
publications these invitations to tender were advertised. 4.
Evidence submitted to your organisation by Common Purpose
demostrating they have the competence and expertise to provide the
services they offer, qualifications of all of their trainers who
have delivered courses to your staff and evidence submitted to you
by Common Purpose of their industry accreditations or
certifications and quality assurance processes. 5. Details of the
nature and content of Common Purpose courses undertaken by your
staff. 6. Criteria used to select Common Purpose against other
bidders and evidence these criteria were applied properly and
fairly. 7. Findings of any audits conducted by or on behalf of your
organisation into Common Purpose UK operations. 8. If competitive
tendering was not applied to the procurement by your organisation
of services from Common Purpose (which I understand is a legal
requirement for public sector procurement and requiring at least
three bids) please provide an explanation of why procurement rules
were waived.

Yours faithfully,

Mr McGillivray

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