§ Mr. John MarshallTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to publish the research on "CCT and Local Authority Blue-Collar Services" by Austin Mayhead and Co. [20672]
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§ Sir Paul BeresfordMy Department will publish today research on "CCT and Local Authority Blue-Collar Services" by Austin Mayhead and Co. It followed up an earlier piece of research into blue-collar compulsory competitive tendering carried out by the institute of local government studies at the university of Birmingham.
This research confirms the progress that has been made in achieving greater efficiency and value for money in the delivery of local authority services through fair competition between in-house teams and private contractors. Average annual savings from blue-collar CCT in the second round are running at 9 per cent. compared with 6.5 per cent. in the first round. Most authorities recognise that the quality of CCT services has improved since the first round. Three quarters said that CCT had resulted in clearer and more comprehensive service specifications and two thirds thought it had resulted in a closer reflection of consumer needs.
Only a minority—11 per cent.—of authorities, however, are supportive of the compulsory element of the CCT regime and almost a third said they would not undertake competitive tendering of services should compulsion be removed.
The report looks at the experiences of authorities during the second round of tendering for blue-collar services and analyses data on costs, number of bids, changes in specifications and other factual information about contracts.
I will place in the Library today copies of the executive summary of a copy of the full report entitled "CCT and Local Authority Blue-Collar Services".