§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Energy, pursuant to his statement on 19 January, Official Report, column 240, if he will take steps to calculate the total capital value of the public assets to be sold under the Oil and Gas (Enterprise) Bill, and the net effect of the sale on the Exchequer.
§ Mr. GrayThe price obtained for the assets will be determined by the market's expectation of their future worth. I will be making my own calculations nearer the time of the sale. It would be premature to do so at this stage.
§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Energy, pursuant to his statement on 19 January, Official Report, column 174, and the explanatory memorandum of the Oil and Gas (Enterprise) Bill, if he will give a breakdown of the grades of additional civil servants required in his Department, the qualifications that they will require, and whether he envisages recruiting any such staff from the British Gas Corporation or the British National Oil Corporation.
237W
§ Mr. LawsonI have been asked to reply.
I cannot predict the precise numbers and grades of staff that will be required since these will largely depend on the extent to which matters concerning the use of BGC's pipelines to carry gas on behalf of others are referred to me for determination. The financial and explanatory memorandum of the Bill gives the likely range of staff numbers. I expect that economists, engineers, accountants and lawyers as well as administrators could be needed to administer the provisions in clauses 12 to 17 of the Bill. It is too early to say whether additional staff will need to be recruited and if so, how.