§ Mr. Chopeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will list for each district health authority the percentage of (a) cleaning, (b) catering and (c) domestic services which will be put out to competitive trade in the year ended 31 March 1985;
(2) whether he is satisfied with the response by each regional health authority to the circulars on competitive tendering for domestic, catering and laundry services; and whether he will make a statement;
(3) on what date he completed the study of the summaries submitted by regional health authorities of district programmes for submitting domestic, catering and laundry services to competitive tender.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeAll regional health authorities have submitted summaries of district programmes to us, as they were asked to do. We are in touch with regions about the programmes submitted, and are seeking improvements in those which are not satisfactory. Because this action is in hand, it is not yet possible to say what proportion of domestic, catering and laundry services will be put out to tender by 31 March 1985.