§ Mr. Bruce-Gardyneasked the Minister of Transport whether, in view of the ACARD report on nationalised industry purchasing policies, he will issue a general directive to British Railways to order equipment by open tender and not to limit its purchases exclusively to one supplier.
§ Mr. FowlerExcept in the case of locomotives and rolling stock, supplied by its subsidiary British Rail Engineering Ltd, it is already the Railways Board's policy to secure purchases by competitive tender whenever this is practicable.
The board has recently carried out its own study of manufacturing and maintenance services and I shall be discussing this with them together with the implications for BREL of the Advisory Council for Applied Reasearch and Development report.