§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list all those services or functions that have been contracted out from his Department since November 1991 without market testing an in-house bid against external competition, with, in each instance, the successful contractor and the reasons for the decision to exclude an in-house bid.
§ Mr. HowardNone of the projects in my Department's market-testing programme which involves exposing in-house functions to competition has yet reached the stage where a contract or service level agreement has been awarded. In-house bids are being encouraged in every case.