My Lords, I am the bearer of a simpler brain than the noble Baroness, so I may not cast too much helpful light, but I will do my best. I come to this more in general terms than trying to work from the specific to the general.
I thank my noble friend very much for taking out Amendment 528. I was going to ask him to do that, because we should consider the health service issues together, including Amendment 30 relating to the scope of the light-touch contracts.
4.15 pm
I fear I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Fox: I do not understand where the term “covered procurement” came from and why it was inserted. I looked back to the public contract regulations, thinking that perhaps we were reintroducing something, but it is not there either. We have lived without the term “covered procurement” for a very long time. What does it add now?
Let me put it to my noble friend, and if I am wrong, his explaining why I am will help me and, I hope, other noble Lords. I am working on the basis that, as things stand, the Bill defines procurement by reference to the management, et cetera, of a public contract. In Clause 2, public contracts exclude below-threshold contracts, so “procurement” for these purposes under the Bill relates to contracts above the threshold, not below.
In my understanding, Amendment 1 then introduces two concepts of procurement. There is procurement in its normal meaning and “covered procurement”, which is the procurement of a public contract—public contract later defined by reference to the threshold. In Amendment 1, we bring within the scope of the Bill—on things such as those in Clause 12 and the question of the national procurement policy statement—all the procurement undertaken by contracting authorities in relation to below-threshold values; otherwise, they would be left out, because procurement under Clause 12 would mean procurement above the threshold, not below.
In my understanding, that is what “covered procurement” does. If it did not, Clause 12 would introduce a national covered procurement policy statement, but it does not and there is no such amendment. Clearly, the intention is to have two concepts running through the Bill: procurement, which is every kind of procurement, and covered procurement, which is above the threshold. I do not understand why that is necessary, but at least I think I see what is going on. If I am wrong, I am happy to be put right.