§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will take steps to prevent the managing director of Her Majesty's Devonport dockyard using his Department's official notepaper, envelopes and internal post to publicise a private company which he and other senior managers have formed to tender for the contract to manage Devonport dockyard from 1 April 1987; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Norman Lamont[pursuant to his reply, 13 December 1985, c. 812]: No. The managing director of Devonport dockyard may properly use my Department's stationery and internal postal system to make information available to the work force for which he is responsible, and to those with whom he normally has dealings, about the formation of a company by himself and a small team of managers at the dockyard to bid in competition with other companies for the contract to manage the dockyard.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he will make a statement on the extent to which the involvement of serving Royal Navy officers in a private company tendering for the contract to manage Devonport dockyard from 1 April 1987 is consistent with the terms of Queen's Regulations so long as those officers continue to occupy their present positions;
(2) if he will make a statement on the extent to which the actions of the managing director of Devonport dockyard and other senior Civil Service managers, in forming a private company for the purposes of tendering for the contract to manage the dockyard after 1 April 1987, are consistent with the regulations governing the ethical conduct of civil servants, so long as those persons continue to occupy their present positions.
§ Mr. Norman Lamont[pursuant to his reply, 13 December 1985, c. 812]: The basic criterion governing the involvement of serving Royal Navy officers and civil servants in private activities is that there must be no conflict of interests between the private activity concerned and the individual's official duties.
As my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State said in reply to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Drake (Miss Fookes) at column 781, there is a broad identity of interest for those concerned, both as managers of the dockyard and as potential bidders for the contract. As my right hon. Friend also made clear, we shall be keeping the arrangements under close review.