1.  Our report considers how well the Electoral Commission used its resources to deliver the training programme for electoral administrators for the European Parliamentary Elections held on 10 June 2004. In particular our report considers how the Electoral Commission:

• Identified the need for training;
• Awarded the training contract;
• Managed the delivery of the training; and
• Measured and evaluated the performance of the training.

2.  The key research methods that we used for our report were as follows:

• We carried out a detailed review of pre-tender and contract documentation, project management records, reports commissioned by Solace Enterprises Limited and correspondence between Solace Enterprises and the Electoral Commission;
• Structured interviews with Electoral Commission staff responsible for overseeing the training project; and
• We drew on the National Audit Office's work on procurement by government departments and the Office of Government Commerce's procurement guidance.

3.  We drew on our financial audit work carried out during the year on the Commission's financial statements, and a summary of the main issues arising can be found at Annex 4.

4.   In June 2004 the Electoral Commission commissioned Deloitte to perform an evaluation of the Training Project. This evaluation assessed whether the Electoral Commission achieved their overall training objectives across the United Kingdom, and as such it forms a strategic review of the contract deliverables and developmental processes, and was published in October 2004. In addition and as part of the contract, Solace Enterprises Limited commissioned Insight Social Research Limited (Insight) to evaluate whether the training met the objectives of the project. We have summarised the Deloitte's and Insight's evaluations in part 5 (Measuring and evaluating the Performance of the Training) of this report. Neither report reviewed the process of awarding the training contract, so our work has focussed on this aspect of the project.