5. Mr. De la Bèreasked the Minister of Supply the number of Government contracts that have been placed on the cost plus system; and whether he will discontinue this system in future and put all contracts out to public tender?
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply (Colonel Llewellin)566 On the assumption that by the cost plus system my hon. Friend means contracts by which the purchaser undertakes to pay the actual manufacturing cost of an article, whatever that cost may be, plus a profit calculated on a percentage of that cost, the answer to the first part of the question so far as this Ministry is concerned is" None." It is not, however, practicable to put all contracts out to competitive tender since many technical military stores are outside the sphere of normal commercial production and in a number of cases the demand of the Government equals the whole manufacturing capacity so that competition is excluded.
Mr. De la BèreDoes the hon. and gallant Member realise that the cost plus system is being abused and that it requires constant and serious attention?
§ Sir Henry Morris-JonesMay I ask under which Department the construction of these camps comes? I have received many complaints from my constituency that the whole thing is a complete ramp.
§ Colonel LlewellinEach Service Department building camps is building them for itself; it is not a matter for the Ministry of Supply.