§ Mr. Trewasked the Secretary of State for the Environment, during each quarter since June, 1970, how many individual 68W invitations were issued by his Department to building and civil engineering contractors to tender for projects on a firm price basis; and of these invitations how many were declined.
§ Mr. ChannonThis information could not be collected without undue expenditure of staff resources. For larger construction projects, my Department makes preliminary inquiries to ensure that contractors subsequently invited normally proceed to tender. I have no evidence that the rates of decline at the preliminary and formal stages have varied significantly since June, 1970.