§ Lord Brougham and Vauxasked Her Majesty's Government:
What are their proposals for bringing competition to bear on local authorities' corporate and administrative services.
§ The Minister of State, Department of the Environment (Viscount Ullswater)Corporate and administrative work comprises a number of distinct administrative support services as diverse as printing and reprographics, and building facilities management. These are provided to all parts of the authority. Local authorities increasing recognition of the importance of gaining value for money for these services has meant that much of this work is already being exposed to market pressures. Most local authorities will re-charge in-house users for administrative support services. Those users, particularly where they themselves are exposed to CCT, will be keen to keep overhead costs down and will exert pressure for cost effective and efficient support services.
Customers for administrative support increasingly have the freedom to go elsewhere if the in-house service is inadequate. A significant proportion of administrative support services are already provided by external contractors, and some authorities have dispensed entirely with in-house support staff for much of the work.
The Government's discussions with local authority representatives have led me and my colleagues in Government to conclude that our objective of increasing competition in corporate and administrative support services is already being met though these means and that extension of CCT to take this work would not bring sufficient additional benefits. We have, therefore, decided not to proceed with proposals to introduce CCT for local authority corporate and administrative services.