§ 6. Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects a decision to be reached on the radar systems required for the United Kingdom air defence ground environment.
§ Mr. PattieIt is hoped to award the contract for the first two radars very shortly.
§ Mr. OnslowWill my hon. Friend confirm that he is doing everything possible to support the claims of British contenders for the award? Will he confirm also that, because the American Westinghouse Corporation is one of the foreign contenders, he will make sure that everybody involved in the decision knows that in the case of the CAA radar competition the claims put forward by Westinghouse salesmen were not borne out by experience and were found to be far in excess of the capacity of their equipment?
§ Mr. PattieI assure my hon. Friend that the Ministry of Defence will give the same response as was given by the CAA to any claims by Westinghouse salesmen that are shown to be bogus. It would be as well for British contractors, having made a sensible assessment of the likely market share that they could achieve, to base their costings on achieving such a share, rather than to do what they do too often now, which it to base their costings on a small order from the 1031 Ministry of Defence, thereby losing world markets.
§ Mr. Stephen RossDoes the Minister accept that an order to British companies could have world-wide effects in export markets? The CA A has already awarded its contracts to a Dutch-based company, Phillips, with only a small proportion of work returning to this country. This is a vital issue, and many employees in my constituency and elsewhere are concerned that the order should go to a British company.
§ Mr. PattieIn the case of the CAA radars, the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Trade have to be aware of the likely impact on export markets. When the hon. Gentleman analyses the CAA radar decision he will find that 56 per cent. of that work is to come to the United Kingdom.