§ Mr. Nicholas BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has any proposals to increase the present limit of £25,000 above which local authority contracts must be put out to tender.
§ Mr. David HuntNew Direct Labour Organisation Competition Regulations were laid before Parliament recently whereby, from 1 October this year, local authorities are required to subject all their building maintenance and new construction work to competition with the private sector. From the same date the de minimis exemption for small authorities was reduced from 30 to 15 employees.
The emergency work exemption has been redefined to cover only genuinely unpredictable work with effect from 1 April 1990, the date from which authorities are also prohibited from awarding extension "contracts" for maintenance work to their DLOs.
As regards highways work, the competition-free allowance was reduced significantly from 1 April 1987 and again from 1 April 1988. Any increase in the present threshold of £25,000 above which all local authority highways contracts must be put out to tender would not be desirable as it would reduce the benefits of competition.