§ Mr. BeithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether the de minimis figure of £100,000 for compulsory competitive tendering will be reviewed, following the proposal of a de minimis figure of £300,000 in respect of compulsory competitive tendering for legal services.
§ Mr. Robert B. JonesThe two figures referred to by my hon. Friend are different in nature and purpose. The £100,000 de minimis relates to manual services, and represents the level of expenditure on a service below which the administrative cost of compulsory competitive tendering may outweigh the prospective savings. The other figure relates to the proposals to extend CCT to local
604Wbudget for each body, and the number of appointments made or renewed for each body in each of the past five years.
§ Sir Paul BeresfordThe Secretary of State makes appointments to the following non-departmental public bodies whose activities relate solely to the Greater London area. It excludes those bodies, based in London, whose activities are national.
Body Total Annual Budget (1994–95)approx. £ million London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) 116.2 London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) 1248.5 London Rent Assessment Panel (LRAP) 2.6 London Residuary Body (LRB) 22.3 Stonebridge Housing Action Trust (SHAT) 1.0 Tower Hamlets Housing Action Trust (THHAT) 6.9 Waltham Forest Housing Action Trust (WFHAT) 35 1 None of this budget is directly financed by DOE. Most of the expenditure represents the cost of pensions paid to former GLC and ILEA employees. 2 None of this budget is directly financed by DOE. The number of appointments and re-appointments for each of these bodies for the last five years is as follows:
authorities' legal services. The exemption from CCT of 55 per cent. of local authorities' legal work, or £300,000 by value, whichever is the greater, is designed to ensure that all authorities can maintain the necessary in-house legal expertise for advising on policy and strategic matters.
All CCT de minimis provisions are kept under review, but there are no immediate plans to change the present figures.