§ Mr. SykesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the response of Wolverhampton metropolitan borough council to the 299W notice served on it on 11 September 1996 in respect of its decision to assign highway maintenance, winter maintenance and street lighting work to its direct labour organisation. [18141]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has considered the response made by the authority on 10 October. He has today served a direction on the authority because it still appears to him that the authority acted in an anti-competitive manner in assigning work to its direct labour organisation. He took this view because of the way in which the authority undertook the evaluation of bids. The effect of the direction is to require the authority to seek consent if, when it retenders the work at the end of the current assignment, it wishes to continue to carry it out in-house.