§ Mr. Lubbockasked the Minister of Aviation whether the technical costs officers employed by his Department are normally given access to time-study data 162W in contractors' works; and whether these facilities were granted by Ferranti Limited for the Bloodhound I.
§ Mr. Lubbockasked the Minister of Aviation if the technical costs officers employed by his Department are allowed to conduct time studies in contractors' works for the purpose of checking their estimates; and if this procedure was followed in the case of the Bloodhound I contracts.
§ Mr. AmeryThe purpose of the technical costs officers' estimates of prime costs is to enable fair and reasonable prices to be agreed as early as possible in the progress of the contract. It is not the practice to conduct time studies for this purpose. Such studies would be a move towards the assessment of actual costs. Where contract prices are based on actual costs, these are ascertained by means of accountants' investigations of the contractor's books and not by means of time studies.
In the Bloodhound I contracts, the prices were fixed on the basis of technical costs estimates and time studies were not used for this purpose.