§ Mr. A. Edwardsasked the First Commissioner of Works the value of all public works and building contracts placed by various depôts in the last 12 months to the latest vailable date; the number of 238W companies that have received direct contracts; and the number of companies invited to tender for same?
Mr. Ramsbotham: To furnish this information for the Office of Works alone—and I cannot answer for other Departments—would entail an analysis of the tendering for all the building contracts placed during the period. Over 4,600 sets of tenders were received in my Department during 1939: and I regret that a summary could not be compiled without an expenditure of labour out of all proportion to the value of the information.