Award of the Equality Advisory Support Service 2016: Access to the tender specification, explanation of the tender process, PSED compliance and equality impact assessment

Government Equalities Office did not have the information requested.

Dear Government Equalities Office,

It has been reported in the Press that G4S has been awarded the contract to run the Equality Advisory Support Service with effect from 1st October 2016. Furthermore despite searching, I have been unable to locate the 2016 EASS tender specification or associated paperwork.

Access to the 2016 EASS tender specification
The 2011 tender specification for the EASS was, and is, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/sy... published by the GEO on 18/11/11. It was also advertised on UnitedKingdom-Tenders.co.uk - http://england.unitedkingdom-tenders.co....

Question 1: Can you please direct me to a UK government website or another public website containing the 2016 EASS tender specification?

Access to the equality impact assessment or equality analysis
Clearly this tender engages the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Question 2: Did the GEO produce either an equality analysis or equality impact assessment in relation to the 2016 EASS tender specification?
Question 3: Did the GEO manage the tender process for the EASS tender process or was the process managed by external contractors?
Question 4: If the process was managed by external contractors which external contractors managed the 2016 EASS tender process?
Question 5: Can you please direct me to the equality impact assessment or equality analysis produced in relation to the final 2016 EASS tender specification?

The EHRC identified that it had concerns about the tender specification produced by the GEO - 'The Government .... invited us to comment on the draft specification for the service and issued a new invitation to tender in April 2016.'

Question 6: Were all of the concerns raised by the EHRC addressed by the GEO amending the tender specification published in April 2016?
Question 7: If yes, what changes were made to address the concerns raised by the EHRC? If any of the EHRC's concerns were not addressed, which issues were not addressed and why?

The tender process for the EASS in 2016 and the PSED
Question 8: Was the tender process an open one?
Question 9: When did the process start in 2016, what were the main phases and when was the EASS contract provisionally awarded?
Question 10: How many organisations submitted bids to run the EASS in 2016?
Question 11: What was the size of the 3 year contract?

This contract fully engages the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty?
Question 12: Did the tender assessment process assess the successful track record of potential contractors in providing advice on equalities' matters?
Question 13: If the assessment process did seek to assess that contractors had a successful track record of providing advice on equalities matters, how was this done?
Question 14: Did the tender assessment process ensure that potential contractors did not have a serious track record of non-compliance with UK equality or human rights legislative requirements?
Question 15: If the assessment process did seek to assess that contractors had no serious track record of non-compliance with UK equality or human rights legislative requirements, how was this done?
Question 16: What monitoring arrangements have been included in the contract to ensure that a high quality service EASS is provided by the successful contractor?

Please respond promptly within 20 days of receipt of this request. If you are unable to answer any of my questions within the 20 day time limit please promptly answer and respond to those that can be answered and explain when you will be able to respond to any outstanding questions.

Yours faithfully,

Dr Leander Neckles

FOI Mailbox,

Thank you for your email which is now being dealt with by the Freedom of
Information Team at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. 
You will receive a response to your information request within 20 working
days of receipt.
  

FOI Mailbox,

Dear Dr Neckles, 

Thank you for your information request of 1 August 2016 regarding the
contract to run the Equality Advisory Support Service. 

I write to inform you that the Government Equalities Office has moved and
is now part of The Department For Education. You should submit your
request to DfE directly
via: [1]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Team

Department for Culture, Media & Sport

References

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1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

The request has been made to the Department for Education at:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...