§ Dr. MarekTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish the recommendation of the Treasury working party which has looked into the options for the future of the Civil Service Catering Organisation.
§ Mr. Norman Lamont[holding answer 26 March 1991]: Following an assessment of prospects for the Civil Service Catering Organisation—CISCO—in a study announced on 4 April 1990, Official Report, columns 608–09, I have decided that CISCO should be reorganised with the aim of its transfer to the private sector.
Reorganisation will include developing CISCO's operations on more commercial lines and concentrating them upon its business activities. It will be for individual Departments and agencies to decide what catering facilities will be made available to staff. In consequence, certain administration-related work which CISCO has undertaken hitherto will pass elsewhere within government, some to Departments generally and some to the Treasury. The changes will give CISCO the opportunity to 411W improve the value for money which its services offer both to its Government Department clients and to the individual customers of the staff restaurants which it runs and manages. Competitive tendering of catering contracts will continue, and the free choices made by CISCO's clients and customers will eventually determine whether it will be viable for operation in the private sector or whether the needs of Departments and individual customers will best be met by other catering contractors. I expect the management of this process of change to finish by the end of March 1993.
Consultations will take place with the Council of Civil Service Unions and the Joint Co-ordinating Committee for Government Industrial Establishments.