Market Testing (Hansard, 1 July 1992)

§ Dr. Marek
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will give a date when he will announce the areas of work in his Department to be market tested; and whether all relevant information will he made publicly available.

§ Mr. David Hunt
As promised in the White Paper "Competing for Quality" Cm. 1730, targets for the market testing programme will be announced later this year.

§ Dr. Marek
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what has been the total cost so far of the market testing initiative in his Department since November 1991.

§ Mr. David Hunt
The estimated cost to date is £76,000.

§ Dr. Marek
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what estimate he has made of savings in his Department as a result a the market testing programme.

§ Mr. David Hunt
The purpose of the market testing programme is to test by competition the value for money represented by the present arrangements for undertaking non-core activities and thus to identify and introduce more effective arrangements. We have made no estimate of likely savings because no pre-emptive judgment has been made of the relative efficiency of the present arrangements.