§ 54. Mr. Willeyasked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications whether he will issue a general direction to the Post Office not to accept tenders from abroad for telecommunications equipment where to do so seriously prejudices the Government's development area policy.
147W
§ Sir J. Eden:No. I would refer the hon. Member to the White Paper on Industrial and Regional Development—Cmnd. 4942—which outlines the Government's policy for assisting the development areas to become more competitive. The Post Office gets 70 per cent. of its exchange equipment from those areas and, as my predecessor informed the House on 1st March, recently increased its investment programme by £100 million, much of it to be spent in the designated areas.—[Vol. 832, c. 409.]