Skills delivery landscape independent review: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for information regarding the skills delivery landscape independent review, specifically:

1. Was a compliant procurement process carried out to award the review to James Withers?

2. What was the total value paid to James Withers to carry out his review?

3. If a compliant procurement process was carried out, could you provide further information on this including where the opportunity was published, which suppliers were invited to bid (depending on value), what the quality and pricing criteria was for the tender, which suppliers bid for the requirement other than James Withers?

4. Again if a compliant procurement process was carried out, could the tender documents and all relevant appendices be provided as well as the responses submitted by the suppliers and the evaluation scoring and comments for the successful and unsuccessful bids?

5. If a procurement process was not carried out, what was the reasoning for this and how was James Withers fairly selected?

6. What was the original scope of the review supposed to be and did this differ from the scope that James Withers eventually based his review on?

Response

The answers to your questions are as follows. As the answers to questions 1 and 5 are interlinked, I have answered these together.

1. Was a compliant procurement process carried out to award the review to James Withers? (and)

5. If a procurement process was not carried out, what was the reasoning for this and how was James Withers fairly selected. here are a range of ways in which appointments can be made. Rather than a procurement process, James Withers was appointed as Independent Advisor for the Skills Delivery Landscape Review through a ministerial public appointment in line with section 5 of the Scottish Ministerial Code 2018.
Whilst the fundamental principle of 'appointment on merit' applied, this Advisory role was not one regulated by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland. James Withers was selected as preferred candidate on merit based on consideration of evidence of his appropriateness for the role amongst other professionals.

2. What was the total value paid to James Withers to carry out his review? The total sum paid to James Withers to carry out this review was £21,384. This was based on a daily fee rate determined within the Daily Fee Framework of the Public Sector Pay Policy.

3. If a compliant procurement process was carried out, could you provide further information on this […] As noted above, the Advisor was appointed by ministerial public appointment therefore the Scottish Government does not have the information. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

4. Again if a compliant procurement process was carried out, could the tender documents and all relevant appendices be provided as well as […] Again as noted above, the Advisor was appointed by ministerial public appointment therefore the Scottish Government does not have this information. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

6. What was the original scope of the review supposed to be and did this differ from the scope that James Withers eventually based his review on. The scope of the review was set out in the Terms of Reference, which were published on 22 September 2022. The scope was not amended during the course of the review. These Terms of Reference, including the scope, are available on the Scottish Government website at:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/skills-delivery-independent-review-terms-of-reference/pages/purposeand-scope/

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.