§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list, for each of the Crown Suppliers' product supply, transport and buying agency businesses, in each of the three years before Civil Service departments were untied and in each year since (i) total sales, (ii) sales to Civil Service departments, (iii) sales to British Telecom, (iv) sales to British Rail and (v) average price rises in each year over that period.
§ Mr. ChopeThe Crown Suppliers will not be operating as three separate businesses until 1 January 1990. The current information and accounting systems do not enable the business, particularly for product supply and the412W buying agency to be accurately identified. In addition, the sales figures shown include sales generated from activities which do not form part of the package for sale and which have been transferred to PSA during the last three months. The level of the Crown Suppliers' sales will, therefore, be markedly different in the future.
The following analysis has been split on the best estimate available for those functions to be included in each of the three businesses. Government Departments were fully untied from the Crown Suppliers on 1 April 1987.
£ million Product supply and services The buying agency Transport 1984–85 124.4 37.7 16.0 1985–86 130.8 39.9 18.7 1986–87 142.1 45.9 20.0 1987–88 145.5 38.5 21.7 1 1988 146.1 36.6 22.9 1 Calendar year
Customer analysis Total product supply and buying agency business £ million British Telecom British Rail Top 10 Government Department Others 1984–85 n/a n/a n/a n/a 1985–86 12.9 0.8 129.1 27.9 1986–87 9.6 1.0 144.5 32.9 1987–88 7.7 1.4 141.9 33.0 1 1988 8.2 2.4 136.8 35.3 1 Calendar year. n/a—Not available.
Average increases in TCS prices were as follows:
£ million Per cent. 1985–86 8.7 1986–87 6.7 1987–88 5.6 1 1988 5.9 1 Calendar year.
§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how he intends to honour the commitment given to this House by his junior Minister that the pensions of the staff of the Crown Suppliers upon privatisation will be comparable to those they are entitled to under the principal Civil Service pension scheme.
§ Mr. ChopeWhen tender invitations are issued, prospective purchasers will be invited to offer pension terms to transferred staff broadly comparable to those in the principal Civil Service pension scheme. Detailed future pension arrangements will be a matter for the purchaser to discuss with the Government in the course of the sale.