HC Deb 25 February 2002 vol 380 cc796-7W
Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the cost of the PFI project to rationalise the estate of the Health and Safety Laboratory has been in each year since 1997. [36288]

Dr. Whitehead: The resource accounting costs of external advisers to the project, as provided in HSL's published annual report and accounts, are:

£000
1997–98 496
1998–99 554
1999–2000 732
2000–01 890

Information for 2001–02 is not yet available.

The internal staff costs of the Department and of HSE have not been separately maintained.

Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what estimate he has made of the cost of the delay in taking forward the PFI project to rationalise the estate of the Health and Safety Laboratory. [36287]

Dr. Whitehead

The work of the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) is varied and often unique. It has been important, therefore, to ensure that both the output specification for the laboratory has been carefully defined and that the preferred bidder's response has fully reflected the specialist nature of the requirement. This has taken some time to achieve. The costs associated with these activities have not been separately kept, nevertheless the overall scheme has been shown to be affordable to HSL and to represent best overall value for money both for the tax payer and for HSL. It is anticipated that negotiations will now be successfully concluded very shortly enabling construction work to begin, with anticipated completion in the late summer of 2004.