The recent Public Accounts Committee report on contract management made interesting reading over the holidays.

In launching the Committee’s findings, its chair, the Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, pointed to the fact that £90bn of taxpayers’ money is spent each year on the private sector supplying public goods and services.

With this amount of public money at stake, she stressed that it is vital that the highest ethical standards are practised by contractors.

Given the range of recent high profile scandals, such as massive overcharging by G4S and Serco for the Ministry of Justice electronic tagging contracts, it is no surprise that the Committee concluded that, ‘too often the ethical standards of contractors have been found wanting’ and ‘some suppliers have lost sight of the fact that they are delivering public services and should do so in accordance with public service standards’.