§ Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he intends to take in respect of the recommendations on pre-contract delays in civil engineering made to him by the Construction Industry Research Information Association.
§ Mr. PattieDefence works contracts are handled on our behalf by the Property Services Agency and the recommendations of the CIRIA report are largely a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment. The 1980 moratorium on defence spending, which was cited in the CIRI A report as an example of pre-contract delay, was a necessary measure. It was imposed in order to restrain defence expenditure as far as possible within its cash limit at a time when payments by the Minister of Defence to industry in general had been running at an unexpectedly high rate.