§ Mr. Marplesasked the Minister of Transport what committee exists within his Department to co-ordinate procurement policies; what is its composition and terms of reference; and how often it meets.
§ Mr. MarshProcurement policies are the responsibility of one division. There is, therefore, no need for a co-ordinating committee within the Department.
§ Mr. Marplesasked the Minister of Transport whether manuals of procurement instructions and regulations are provided to procurement officers in his Department; and what arrangements are made to ensure compliance.
§ Mr. MarshYes. Compliance is assured by the supervision exercised by senior officers in the normal day-to-day management of the work.
§ Mr. Marplesasked the Minister of Transport (1) what are the salaries of the most senior officer with full-time responsibility for procurement, and of those reporting directly to him;
(2) what proportion of procurement staff in his Department are late entrants into the Civil Service with more than one year's previous commercial experience of procurement;
(3) what is the establishment, by numbers of staff in each grade, of each directorate or section concerned with procurement; and what has been its average strength in each of the past three years;
(4) to which professional institutes and institutions procurement staff belong; and how many of the staff belong to each of these professional bodies;
(5) what is the average length of service in the procurement function of staff currently allotted to it.
§ Mr. MarshProcurement in my Department is a small part of the function of the Contracts Division which is headed by a principal executive officer on the national salary scale £4,400 to £4,950. 229W The staff who report direct to him are chief executive officers on the national salary scale £3,003 to £3,570. One of these has procurement work as part of his responsibility. Other staff engaged on this work is equivalent to one senior executive officer, three higher executive officers, four executive officers and two clerical officers; the situation has varied only slightly over the past three years. The average length of service on this work of staff currently allotted to it is about five years. None of them has commercial experience of procurement nor do they belong to any professional bodies.
§ Mr. Marplesasked the Minister of Transport of the products procured by his Department regularly for three years or more, what proportion has, within the last three years, been specifically reviewed to evaluate product design against present need and potential cost reduction.
§ Mr. MarshThe stores and equipment purchased by my Department consist mainly of standard items. Specialised equipment is kept under constant review to ensure that new design techniques offering better performance and cost reductions are incorporated whenever possible.
§ Mr. Marplesasked the Minister of Transport what staff, by number and grades, is allocated full-time to standardisation and variety reduction within his Department.
§ Mr. MarshThe volume and nature of the procurement needs of the Department do not justify the allocation of staff full-time to standardisation and variety reduction.
§ Mr. Marplesasked the Minister of Transport to what extent the same organisation and staff of his Department is required to handle negotiated procurement and competitive tendering; and what proportion of staff is allocated to each.
§ Mr. MarshThe organisation and staff concerned with procurement deal with both competitive and negotiated contracts and there is no separate allocation.