§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give a breakdown of the extra items and work which increased the estimate on 14 January for the conversion of existing accommodation into five Committee Rooms on the Upper Committee Corridor from £375,000 to £475,000.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe main factors which have contributed to the increased estimated cost of the new Committee Rooms on the Upper Committee Corridor are:
- i. Redesign of the lighting and ventilation systems to minimise interference with the ceiling panels, at the request of the Department's historic building advisers of the Palace of Westminster. The urgency of the requirement caused assessments to be made at the outset which had to be changed after detailed studies.
- ii. Replacement of a large number of ceil-ling panels which were unavoidably damaged during the installation of the lighting and ventilation. Many of these panels were found to be sub-standard replacements of the original ceiling panels—a fact not revealed during the design survey.
- iii. Unforeseen structural work to some of the ceilings which were found to be partially supported by non-load bearing partition walls. This had resulted from structural movement within the building after the partitions were originally installed.
711 - iv. The need to adopt exceptional contractual procedures and to introduce more overtime working than foreseen to complete the work to a time scale dictated by the House's requirements.
I am advised that it is not possible at this stage to attribute specific amounts of the estimated increase to each of these factors.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the cost of the lighting in the five Committee Rooms on the Upper Committee Corridor; and what was the cost of the wall lights.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe cost of the lighting was approximately £24,000. The wall lights cost £8,280.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give detailed particulars with price of the furnishings costing £84,000 for the five
Work Labour Materials Total £ £ £ Building and Civil Engineering … … … … 159,000 79,000 238,000 Mechanical and Electrical (i) Tannoy … … … … … … 31,000 17,500 48,500 (ii) Electrical … … … … … 35,750 52,750 88,500 (iii) Ventilation … … … … … 60,000 40,000 100,000 475,000