§ Mr. Masonasked the Postmaster-General what has been the result of his invitation to firms outside the Bulk Supply Agreement to tender for the supply of telephone apparatus to the value of £120,000 and exchange equipment to the value of £490,000 under the reservation clauses of the Bulk Supply Agreement.
§ Mr. BevinsI assume that the hon. Member has taken his figures from paragraph 60 of the Third Report from the Committee of Public Accounts, Session 1960–61, where, however, they were transposed. The correct figures are given in the Post Office paper at Appendix 7 to the Report.
The result of the tendering has been that orders for telephone apparatus to a value of about £450,000 have been placed with firms outside the Bulk Supply Agreement. As regards exchange equipment, tenders were received for only a limited number of the items and were declined since the prices were sub-
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Telephone Area Order List 30th June, 1961 31st July, 1961 31st August, 1961 30th September, 1961 Aberdeen … 1,354 1,328 1,176 1,081 Bedford … 2,971 2,908 2,869 2,574 Belfast … 3,022 2,986 2,785 2,654 Birmingham … 8,546 8,690 8,488 8,293 Blackburn … 2,300 2,199 2,088 2,093 Bournemouth … 1,710 1,591 1,495 1,460 Bradford … 2,234 2,161 2,017 1,845 Brighton … 4,132 3,804 3,667 3,412 Bristol … 2,185 2,149 2,037 1,887 Cambridge … 2,309 2,292 2,082 2,052 Canterbury … 2,668 2,571 2,442 2,472 Cardiff … 3,887 3,776 3,719 3,591 Chester … 2,031 1,929 1,897 1,804 Colchester … 1,348 1,241 1,178 1,150 Coventry … 4,833 4,834 4,735 4,696 Dundee … 585 611 500 507 Edinburgh … 1,124 1,133 934 962 Exeter … 928 903 857 790 Glasgow … 4,515 4,317 3,970 3,855 Gloucester … 1,353 1,385 1,412 1,187 Guildford … 2,961 2,945 2,911 2,770 Lancaster … 1,541 1,536 1,441 1,398 Leeds … 3,162 2,957 2,803 2,688 Leicester … 2,013 1,753 1,689 1,643 Lincoln … 2,372 2,264 2,220 2,195 Liverpool … 3,624 3,592 3,408 3,355 London/Centre … 5,834 5,897 6,240 6,536 London/City … 4,897 4,842 4,396 4,711 London/East … 5,156 4,478 3,444 2,942 London/North … 5,814 5,566 4,898 4,165 stantially higher than for the same items provided under the Agreement. Further tenders are being invited.