Compulsory Competitive Tendering (Hansard, 24 February 1993)

§ 13. Mr. Sweeney
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he will take to ensure that all local authorities apply compulsory competitive tendering with equal rigour.

§ Mr. Robin Squire
The Government have powers to ensure that competitive tendering is rigorously applied by all local authorities. We have not hesitated to use them where necessary. If my hon. Friends—or Opposition Members—know of cases in which English authorities are failing to fulfil the competition requirements of the legislation, I shall certainly follow them up.

§ Mr. Sweeney
Does my hon. Friend agree that there is widespread public support for the Government's policy on competitive tendering? Will he confirm that he will take all the necessary steps to ensure that backsliding Labour authorities comply with the Government in introducing it?

§ Mr. Squire
I fully agree with my hon. Friend's comments on the importance and popularity of CCT; indeed, I understand that its popularity has now spread to the Opposition Front Bench.
My hon. Friend may be interested to know that, last year alone, my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State issued 53 notices and 22 directions under the legislation, which in each case represents nearly 50 per cent. of the total issued since the legislation was introduced.

Mr. Alan W. Williams
Does the Minister accept that the policy of compulsory competitive tendering is now in a mess and that it has always depended on private companies paying low wages—lower than those previously paid by local authorities? That is illegal, according to the European Community's acquired rights directive. Will the Minister also comment on reports that the Government may be liable to pay hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation to low-paid workers who have been cheated out of their wages over the past 12 years by the illegal policy of compulsory competitive tendering?

§ Mr. Squire
I entirely reject the suggestion that the success of CCT is in any way based on poor wages and impoverished terms of employment. It is based on the need to ensure that local services are handled efficiently and effectively, whether they are providedin-house—that is, by local authority employees—or by an external contractor.

§ Mr. Mans
In the light of my hon. Friend's earlier reply, will he look closely at the activities of Labour-controlled Lancashire county council in relation to competitive tendering? Will he also consider the fact that the council's lack of enthusiasm for competitive tendering—indeed, its resistance to it—is one good reason why it will set such a high council tax in the coming financial year?

§ Mr. Squire
My hon. Friend makes a fair point: high council taxes—and high community charges—are often linked with inefficiencies in the way in which councils deliver their services. I invite my hon. Friend to forward to me any information that may suggest that Lancashire county council is acting in an anti-competitive manner. I promise that we shall investigate any such information very carefully.

§ Mr. Henderson
Does the Minister accept that one reason why there is such confusion among local authorities about whether the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations should apply is that, although the Secretary of State announced in the most recent environment Question Time that the directive concerned did not apply to local authorities, the Minister has been telling local authority associations that they may wish to insert in their contracts a clause saying that it does apply to them? Is not it time that not only local authorities but the public knew where they stood and that British workers enjoyed the same rights as workers in every other part of Europe?

§ Mr. Squire
In his new-found enthusiasm for CCT, the hon. Gentleman has rather overlooked what my right hon. and learned Friend and I have actually said. If he is to support CCT, the hon. Gentleman must take on board the important point that each case must be examined on its merits. There is no question of a blanket inclusion or exclusion. Let me say again that if there is any question of local authorities seeking to apply such measures to each and every transaction, we shall investigate the possibility of anti-competitive behaviour.