Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
We asked the Department why it had not just pressed ahead with the areas that...
Conclusion
We asked the Department why it had not just pressed ahead with the areas that it already knows are commercially unviable in the long term. It pointed us to Cumbria which had recently “been procured” and said that Cambridgeshire was also in the same batch. However, these are a small proportion of the UK and we asked what it was doing about the rest of the population. The Department told us that it was “absolutely not complacent”, and it was trying to ensure that it had a range of interventions in the programme so that it was clear with the market about where it is going to subsidise.67
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
3.10 BDUK’s overall programme strategy and design of its interventions, including the procurement approach, balances the need to be dynamic and responsive to the market’s plans while maintaining a minimum level of certainty that suppliers will build viable networks to uncommercial areas and consequently ensure appropriate value for money. 3.11 BDUK has implemented a robust process for surveying contract areas to understand suppliers’ commercial build plans and identify the premises requiring support from BDUK to access gigabit networks. This process provides BDUK with the information required to identify whether to intervene in an area, because there are no commercial plans to build gigabit infrastructure, or to defer programme activity in that area because they may be covered by suppliers’ commercial build plans. BDUK retains the option of including premises in later delivery phases of its Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy contracts if intervention is required at a later date because suppliers’ commercial build plans change. 3.12 BDUK has streamlined its procurement process, while maintaining Public Contracting Regulations and Cabinet Office best practice. This includes establishing a Dynamic Purchasing System to pre-qualify bidders for its local supplier procurements and investing time in pre-procurement market engagement to assess the viability of proposed procurements and mitigate the risk of delays from failed procurements. 3.13 BDUK reviews its procurement approach following each round of procurements to measure their success and learn lessons to take into subsequent procurements. The first round of procurements are planned to be complete by December 2022.