Dear FoI Officer

Thank you for your response, which I will pass on
to the people fighting blacklisting. But I have to ask, why did LibDem Council
Leader, Councillor Derbyshire, make a promise in the full council meeting not to
use blacklisting firms and then promptly gives one a £350m contract? LibDems
eh! If their lips are moving they are lying.

Kind regards

Sheila

From: FOI Officer

To: Sheila Oliver ; FOI Officer

Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 11:14 AM

Subject: RE: Early contractor involvment – “Cheadle Constituency Link Road” – ref 9178 – Response

Dear Mrs Oliver,

I am writing in response to your request for information (ref FOI 9178) regarding the above.

The information has been prepared by the relevant Council service and is as follows:

Under the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 there is only one relevant discretionary ground for excluding a contractor where blacklisting is alleged to have taken place and that is if the bidding organisation has committed an act of grave misconduct in the course of its business or profession. However, in such cases the Local Authority is obliged to consider mitigating circumstances and to permit economic operators to demonstrate “self-cleaning”.

Of the major companies implicated in blacklisting, Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci Construction have all apologised for their involvement with The Consulting Association (the company operating the database) and any impact that its database may have had on any individual construction worker. These companies have joined together to make amends by establishing a Construction Workers’ Compensation Scheme. The scheme is intended to make it as simple as possible for any worker with a legitimate claim to access compensation. Carillion maintain their involvement came about through its subsidiary Crown House, which was sold to Laing O’Rourke in 2004. They argue that the practice of using the database was to identify workers involved in criminal offences and unlawful strike activity.

Yours sincerely,

Marianne Lavin
CSS Senior Officer
Information Governance Team
Stockport Council
Stockport SK1 3XE
Tel : 0161 474 4048