HC Deb 01 December 1988 vol 142 cc349-50W
Mr. Chapman

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what have been the financial savings to his Department since the introduction of competitive tendering.

Mr. Sainsbury

The Department's commercial approach to defence procurement, including the greater emphasis on competition, has achieved substantial cost savings. Eleven examples were included in the 1988 statement on the Defence Estimates where savings of some £105 million had resulted. It is however, difficult to estimate the savings resulting from competitive tendering in the absence, in some instances, of information as to the price that would have been achieved without competition. In addition, the wide range of circumstances where competition can be used to make it impossible to calculate the cumulative savings made since the adoption of this commercial approach in the early 1980s. Competition has also promoted the more efficient use of industrial resources which has contributed to the recent considerable export successes of British industry.

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