Common Purpose UK Courses and Tendering

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 and councillors between 1997 and 2008:

1. Names and job titles (where applicable) of all of your employees
and councillors who have participated in leadership training
programmes delivered by Common Purpose UK, the specific Common
Purpose programmes they have participated in and the dates of those
courses.

2. The total sums spent by your authority on Common Purpose
programmes for staff and councillors in each year from 1997 to 2008
inclusive. Please also include expenses claims by employees and
councillors itemising any Common Purpose courses thet have arranged
for themselves.

3. Details of the competitive tendering process and, where
applicable, durations of service contracts you have entered into
with Common Purpose.

4. Identities of submitters of rival bids to provide leadership
courses and details of the quotations they gave.

5. Copies of text of invitations to tender which Common Purpose
submitted tenders to your authority in response to and in which
publications these invitations to tender were advertised.

6. Evidence submitted to your authority by Common Purpose
demonstrating 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.

7. Details of the nature and content of Common Purpose courses
undertaken by your staff.

8. Criteria used to select Common Purpose against other
bidders and evidence these criteria were applied properly and
fairly.

9. Findings of any audits conducted by or on behalf of your
autrhority into Common Purpose UK operations.

10. 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