§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will give details of the number of times that708W a second firm of consulting engineers have been employed to report on the performance of the consulting engineers employed on a road building scheme; if he will give details of the circumstances; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter Bottomley[holding answer 9 March 1989]: The case where a second firm has been appointed to report, in part, on the performance of a consulting engineer commissioned for a road building project is the Chapel-en-le-Frith and Whaley bridge bypass which was the subject of the hon. Member's questions on 2 March. I cannot yet add to the answers that I gave then.
Second firms are frequently used to consider specialist matters which arise in and from the development of highway projects. An independent design check in relation to certain categories of structures is a standard quality assurance requirement in all cases.