§ Sir Anthony GrantTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he has decided to take in relation to East Cambridgeshire district council following the notice served on it on 19 May 1995 in respect of anti-competitive behaviour in awarding a refuse collection contract in-house. [10588]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordOn 19 May my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, served a notice under section 13 of the Local Government Act 1988 on East Cambridgeshire district council, setting out his view that the authority had acted anti-competitively during a competition for refuse collection work.
My right hon. Friend has given careful consideration to the response to that notice. East Cambridgeshire awarded the contract for refuse collection to its direct service organisation when it had received substantially lower bids from private companies. In my right hon. Friend's view they did not have well-founded reasons for doing so. He has therefore today given the authority a direction under section 14 of the Act which requires them to retender their 84W refuse collection work by 22 January 1997. It must seek his consent if it plans to assign the work to its direct service organisation.