§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will consider the privatisation of the services' facilities for the transport of goods in the United Kingdom other than are required by fighting formations at divisional level and below; and if he will include in theOfficial Report a table showing the numbers of goods vehicles owned by each service which are not in the excluded category, the number of officers and other ranks in each grade in each service required to manage, operate and service them, the total cost including all administrative overheads, pension provision, and so on, the tonnage of goods moved and the all-in cost per ton-mile of the goods transported.
§ Mr. FreemanWork is currently in hand to examine the cost effectiveness of the freight distribution systems which are operated and manned by the services in the United Kingdom to see what further improvements might be made. This includes a review of the costs of operating these systems which will take some time to complete. In the meantime, the financial and operating information is not available in the form requested. In due course we plan to examine the feasibility of seeking commercial bids for the operation of part or all of the systems.