Mr. Alan Lee Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Defence what specific steps he is taking to reduce the time scale of the implementation of works projects to which the Minister of State referred in his speech during the defence debate, Official Report, 27 March, c. 386.
§ Dr. GilbertWe shall shortly be looking into the briefing and design process and associated procedures in which the Ministry of Defence and the Property Services Agency are jointly involved with a view to reducing to a minimum the time between inception and completion of major new works. In addition, I understand from my hon. Friend the Under-636W Secretary of State for the Environment that the PSA is examining ways of streamlining its procedure in order to speed up the flow of particular projects. I also understand that, if there should in future be any spare design capacity available to the PSA, it will be used to press ahead with firm requirements and to anticipate future requirements in order to minimise the effects of peaks and troughs in these and other MOD expenditure programmes.