§ 8. Mr. William Priceasked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications what percentage of manufactured equipment delivered to the Post Office Corporation by outside contractors during the past 12 months was late.
§ Mr. ChatawayThis is a matter for the Post Office, who tell me that no single statistic covering the many items of equipment purchased is available.
§ Mr. PriceIs that not strange, in view of the fact that previous Postmasters-General have given that figure and that it is widely recognised in the industry to be between 75 and 80 per cent.? Is it not clear that the Post Office is getting a good deal of the blame for the incompetence of private industry? Is it not time that the Postmaster-General invited his friends to get their well-covered figures out?
§ Mr. ChatawayThere is not a Postmaster-General. The Post Office tell me that, at any one time, there are about 11,000 contracts current for tens of thousands of different items of equipment. They do not think that it will make any sense to produce a statistic covering all of them. If the hon. Gentleman is talking only about exchange equipment, there are some very deep-seated problems here.
§ Mr. James HamiltonWill the Minister not use his powers of office to try to get the Post Office Corporation to speed up the supplies of this equipment, which is so vital to give telephones to people who are waiting? Would he not suggest to the Chairman of the Corporation that this equipment should be manufactured by the Corporation itself, particularly in the development areas and in my own area, Lanarkshire, in particular? In that way, we could solve two problems: we could solve the unemployment problem and at the same time give people the telephones which are so urgently required.
§ Mr. ChatawayI have no reason to think that manufacture by the Post Office is the answer to this problem. I have had no proposals for this put to me by the Board. But, as the hon. Gentleman knows, a great deal of this equipment is already manufactured in the development areas.
§ Mr. Gregor MackenzieBut the Minister knows that the Post Office Board in its Annual Report referred to the persistent inability of the manufacturing industry to meet these orders on time, and that some 1,400 contracts were in delay by that time. Would he at least have meetings with the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry about the whole question of this industry and supplies to the Post Office? It affects not only exchange equipment and telephones here at home but the standing of our export trade, which is something which should worry all of us.
§ Mr. ChatawayI and the Post Office Board are certainly concerned about the delivery of exchange equipment. The difficulty is mainly with the problems of changing over the proprietary brands of crossbar exchange equipment to equipment suitable for the Post Office. There have been development problems which have been much greater than both the Post Office and the manufacturers originally envisaged.