Competitive Tendering (Hansard, 19 December 1990)

§ Mr. Ashby
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he proposes to take in regard to Leicester city council under part I of the Local Government Act 1988.
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§ Mr. Key
My right hon. Friend has today issued a direction under section 14 of the Local Government Act 1988 requiring Leicester city council to expose refuse collection work to competitive tendering again by 1 November 1991. He has taken this action because he was not satisfied with the response which Leicester city council made to the notice served on 11 September 1990 under section 13 of the Act.
That notice set out the Secretary of State's view that Leicester city council had acted contrary to the requirement of section 7(7) of the Act (which is that, in reaching a decision to assign work to its own work force, an authority must not act in a manner having the effect or intended or likely to have the effect of restricting, distorting or preventing competition) in that, in assessing the cost of accepting a tender from an external contractor, it took account of certain fixed overhead costs.

§ Mr. Janman
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he proposes to take in regard to Thurrock borough council under part I of the Local Government Act 1988.

§ Mr. Key
My right hon. Friend has today issued a direction under section 14 of the Local Government Act 1988 requiring Thurrock borough council to expose street cleaning work to competitive tendering again by 1 November 1991. He has taken this action because he was not satisfied with the response which Thurrock borough council made to the notice served on 3 October 1990 under section 13 of the Act.
That notice set out the Secretary of State's view that Thurrock borough council had acted contrary to the requirement of section 7(7) of the Act (which is that, in reaching a decision to assign work to its own work force, an authority must not act in a manner having the effect or intended or likely to have the effect of restricting, distorting or preventing competition) in that, in assessing the cost of accepting a tender from an external contractor, it took account of certain fixed overhead costs.