§ Mr. Strawasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what information he has as to the proportions of total sales by United Kingdom companies which were accounted for by (a) Government Departments, (b) local government, (c) nationalised industries and (d) non-departmental public sector bodies in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. ButcherThe information is not available.
§ Mr. Strawasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what information he has in respect of British Shipbuilders, British Steel and the Post Office as to the total amount spent on the acquisition of goods and services, expressed in terms of the net contract prices; and how many individual contracts comprised that value of 350W purchasing, for each of the last five years for which figures are available, giving both the overall totals in each case and the totals disaggregated into the following categories (a) capital and revenue expenditure, (b) construction and non-construction projects, (c) goods and services purchased from United Kingdom-based companies and non-United Kingdom-based companies and (d) goods and services purchased from the private sector and from other parts of the public sector.
§ Mr. ButcherBritish Shipbuilders, British Steel and the Post Office estimate that their purchases of raw materials, goods and services amount to just less than £4,000 million a year. I regret that figures are not available over a period of five years and that within this total figure it is not possible to identify purchases in the detail requested.