HC Deb 27 March 1984 vol 57 cc165-6W
Mr. Meacher

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will deposit in the Library all the regional health authority and district health authority documents relating to the award of the Cornish laundry tender to Kneels of Exeter, including the joint management-trade union working party report of 6 January which concluded that the in-house tender was within the competitive range.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

No. Most of these documents, are not in any case, held centrally. The working party proposal is based on the refurbishment of an obsolete laundry and I understand that it has been rejected as impracticable by the health authority concerned. In any event the report was completed long after a decision had been taken based on a careful investment appraisal of outside tenders and the preferred in-house option.

Mr. Meacher

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services why, in view of the fact that their tender was about £½ million higher than the in-house tender, he told the Cornwall and Scilly Isles district health authority to accept the tender from Kneels for privatisation of laundry services in the area.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

Our decision in September 1983 followed an investment appraisal which demonstrated that to place a contract with Kneels Ltd. would be clearly and considerably cheaper than the preferred in-house proposal to build a new laundry.

Mr. Meacher

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list all the contacts, both by letter and by telephone, between Ministers and officials in his Department and the regional health authority of Cornwall and Scilly Isles district health authority over the last three months regarding the award of the tender for hospital laundry in the area.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

The chairman of the South-Western regional health authority wrote to my hon. Friend on 18 January and 23 February and my hon. Friend wrote to the chairman on 15 February. Our Department wrote to the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly health authority on 9 March and the health authority wrote to the Department on 15 March. There have in addition been a number of less formal contacts.