§ Mr. Gordon Brownasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he has instructed further consultancy work into the setting up of Government-owned plc's for the royal dockyards;
(2) what is the objective of the Coopers and Lybrand study into the royal dockyards; when it will be completed; and if he will publish it.
§ Mr. LeeAs I told the hon. Member in a letter to him of 27 March, Coopers and Lybrand is providing advice to my Department in two interrelated areas. The first524W concerns the possible future organisation of the royal dockyards at Devonport and Rosyth after the introduction of commercial management. The second relates to the framework of a Government-owned plc at Rosyth and at Devonport. As I also told him, this second study does not mark any shift in the Government's thinking about the future management of the dockyards. A Government-owned plc remains, as it always has been, an option to which the Government would have recourse only if it was felt that commercial interest in bidding for the contract to manage one of the dockyards was inadequate or unsuitable. The work being done by Coopers and Lybrand in connection with the Government-owned plc option will also provide a benchmark against which to evaluate the responses of potential contractors to the invitations to tender for the management contracts.
Both studies should be completed by early summer. I expect to be able to publish the first study, but it would not be appropriate to publish the second, at least in full. I shall, however, consider, when it has been received and studied, whether any part of it may sensibly be made public.