§ Mr. Dafydd Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will take steps to ensure that all public works authorised by his Department have their tenders divided into as many small portions as is possible in order to help small companies in rural areas compete with large outside companies for such work.
§ Mr. John MorrisThe public works programme authorised by my Department are comprised of both large and small schemes. Phasing of major schemes adds to their cost and delays their ultimate completion but must sometimes be adopted where financial resources are limited. It would not be reasonable on grounds of either economy or efficiency to reduce the size of schemes otherwise.