§ Mr. John Garrettasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the cost of the Rayner scrutiny of the procurement functions of the United Kingdom Treasury 171W and Supply delegation in Washington and New York; and if he will confirm its finding that no net change in public expenditure will result from it.
§ Sir Geoffrey HoweThe cost of the Rayner scrutiny of UKTSD procurement fuctions is estimated at £9,370. A breakdown of these costs is shown in annex 1 to the scrutiny report. The procurement section will be transferred to the Ministry of Defence from 1 April 1981 and accordingly the Treasury has reduced its Estimate for 1981-82 by some £¼ million. It is expected, however, that the cost to public funds as a whole of the procurement work covered by the scrutiny will be unaffected by the transfer. In the longer term the transfer should result in the more efficient operation of defence procurement.