§ Mr. Russell Kerrasked the Secretary of State for Industry what are his current arrangements for handling the Concorde project now the aircraft is in airline service.
§ Mr. VarleyResponsibility for policy on all civil aerospace projects rests with me. The general arrangement is that I call upon the resources of the Ministry of Defence (Procurement Executive) for advice and for detailed execution of the civil programme within agreed policies. However, up till now Concorde has been the exception to these general arrangements in that day-to-day technical control of work on the airframe and day-to-day financial control on both airframe and engine have been handled directly by my Department, mostly through stall on loan from the Ministry of Defence. Now that Concorde has been successfully in airline20W service for some months it has been decided that the general arrangements on civil projects should apply also to Concorde. Therefore, with effect from 1st December 1976 the Ministry of Defence (Procurement Executive) will handle, on behalf of my Department, all day-to-day technical and financial control related to the project in the same way as it does for other civil aircraft and aeroengine projects. This leaves unaltered the Government's policy on the project and my overall responsibility for it.