Better data for evaluation: amendment to the Procurement Bill

As reported in today's Times (£), we’ve been working with John Penrose MP, the Government’s former anti-corruption champion, on an amendment to the Procurement Bill to improve data collection and evaluation for public contracts.

This builds on our previous work about the data published by DWP on its employment support contracts, where we called for better performance data on how effectively the £2.6 billion Restart scheme was getting people back into work.

What the amendment is about

The proposed amendment would require Ministers to publish the intended outcomes of each public contract in advance - for example, to increase the supply of electric charging points, or to help people find work.

Once the contract ends, an independent auditor would assess whether it achieved these outcomes. The results would be published, so that everyone can see what data has been collected and how it was assessed.

Why it matters

Amazingly, in 2021 the Government found that only 8% of its spending on major projects - £35 billion out of £432 billion - had robust evaluation plans in place.

The Evaluation Task Force was set up to tackle this problem, and has taken some positive steps - like requiring Whitehall departments to specify how projects will collect data. But the Task Force can’t mandate that external contracts do this.

The proposed amendment applies this idea to external contracts, and embeds it in law. Major contracts simply wouldn’t be awarded unless they committed to recording outcomes and publishing independent evaluations.

We see this as a way to create a positive feedback loop. Less effective contracts would ultimately be phased out, with successful ones being renewed - with policymakers learning important lessons about what works.

Why it’s easy to do

The change wouldn’t involve ripping up the Whitehall playbook. Already, the ‘What Works’ network provides independent evaluations on the design and delivery of policy across nine areas of Government. 

Many of these centres, such as the Education Endowment Foundation, have had huge impact, identifying which interventions work and which don’t.

This amendment would simply embed the existing best practices for data collection and independent evaluation into legislation, and expand it across more areas of Government.

And it shouldn’t be expensive - contracts shouldn’t be awarded without KPIs being specified, and the cost of evaluation is far outweighed by the potential savings on huge external contracts.

What’s next

It’s great to see that John Penrose’s amendment has attracted so much support, as reported in the Times - including from Spotlight on Corruption, Transparency International, the Centre for Policy Studies, and from Dame Meg Hillier and Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair and deputy chair of the Public Accounts Committee.

We’re now hoping that Ministers will include the amendment in the Bill when it returns to the Commons shortly.

If you’re interested in better data for evaluation, we would love to hear from you. Please do get in touch at contact@centreforpublicdata.org.