HL Deb 16 May 1973 vol 342 cc809-11
LORD INGLEWOOD

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why they are holding up payments due to the Home Grown Timber Marketing Corporation for fencing material supplied in 1969 for the Hawley/Basingstoke section of the M.3 motorway and whether they will make a Statement.

LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTON

My Lords, I understand that all payments to which the contractor is entitled have been made.

LORD INGLEWOOD

My Lords, is my noble friend aware that his information differs somewhat from mine, and that there is still owing a sum of something over £1,000, without calculating interest on the money, which has been outstanding so long on account of the curious and uncommercial ways of the Department.

LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTON

My Lords, I am aware that the corporation concerned claims that it has not been paid in full. The fact remains that the Department has made every effort to get a meeting with the corporation, which has refused to meet any officials from the Department until its letters are answered (what it calls) "satisfactorily".

LORD INGLEWOOD

My Lords, is my noble friend also aware that that last reply he has given me is extremely unfair; that when the Department queried some of the accounts the Home Grown Timber Marketing Corporation, which is a highly respectable body, said that if the Department gave it reasons why it queried the accounts there would then be some purpose in having a conference, but that there was no purpose as long as the Department maintained silence about its opinion? Will he in fact reply to this correspondence which has been outstanding so long?—and then perhaps if a conference could be called some satisfactory result might emerge.

LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTON

My Lords, the reasons are perfectly well known. I could, if it was required, bore the House with them, but as it might turn into a matter of law I should prefer not to. We in the Department are still hoping that our officials will have a chance of meeting the corporation and discussing the matter in a reasonable manner.

LORD HUGHES

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood, said "without taking account of interest". Do the Government in fact pay interest on these outstanding balances when they are settled?

LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTON

My Lords, my advice is that that matter is dealt with in accordance with the conditions of contract.

LORD SLATER

My Lords, would the Minister inform the House why it is necessary for Ministers to stand at that Box and say that "the officials of the Department would be prepared to meet them"? What is the matter with the Minister? Why cannot be meet them? Here is a major company in dispute and surely someone must be arbiter or able to finalise the position. It is not something new for Ministers to be brought in to deal with an unsatisfactory situation when their agents have been working on behalf of the Ministry. Surely the Minister ought to give this matter further consideration.

LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTON

My Lords, this is a perfectly ordinary mercantile agreement. We have paid what we think we should have paid. This firm is saying that we should have paid more. We say we have not paid the very, very small balance outstanding because certain obligations in the contract were not observed; in other words, the other side were in default regarding certain amounts of money which have therefore been withheld. We cannot bring Ministers into such small, petty matters.

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