§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he has decided to take against Bedforshire county council following the notice served on them last year for anti-competitive behaviour in awarding a school and welfare catering contract in-house. [31857]
§ Mr. Robert B. JonesOn 8 November 1994, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, served a notice under section 13 of the Local Government Act 1988 on Bedfordshire county council, setting out his view that the authority had acted anti-competitively during a competition for school and welfare catering work.
My right hon. Friend has given careful consideration to the response to that notice and has today given the authority a direction under section 14 of the Act which requires it to retender its school and welfare catering work by 1 September 1996. Its direct service organisation will be limited to undertaking 70 per cent. of the total value 658W of the work and it must seek the Secretary of State's consent before it assigns it any of the work in-house.
Bedfordshire awarded six contracts for school and welfare catering to its direct service organisation when it had received substantially lower bids for them from a private company. In the Secretary of State's view it did not have well-founded reasons for doing so.