749
wealth
Written
[ 20 OCTOBER 1981]
Secretary of State for Foreign and Common- Affairs (Lord Carrington): Her Majesty's Government keep this question under constant review. We look forward to co-operating with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs in its further scrutiny of it.
ROAD CONSTRUCTION:
COMPARATIVE COSTS
Lord Underhill asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will give details of the comparative costs of transferring to private consulting engineers the design and supervision of construction of over £2,000 million of new motorways and trunk roads, with the costs of the similar work previously carried out by the Road Construction Sub-Units of the Department of Transport.
Answers
750
The Earl of Avon: There will be a once-for-all cost (including redundancy payments to sub-unit staff and transitional costs) in arranging the transfer of this work to private consulting engineers. This is esti- mated at about £5 million. As regards the cost of carrying out design and supervision of construction of the schemes involved in the transfer, it is not possible to make a valid direct comparison of the costs that would have been incurred by sub-units with a declining work- load and by consulting engineers with a continuing one. The Government expects that the transfer of work to the private sector will produce the benefits of a keener and more competitive approach to highways work.
House adjourned at four minutes past six o'clock.