asked the Postmaster-General what has been the result of his invitation to firms outside the Bulk Supply Agreement to tender for the supply of telephone apparatus to the value of £120,000 and exchange equipment to the value of £490,000 under the reservation clauses of the Bulk Supply Agreement.
I assume that the hon. Member has taken his figures from paragraph 60 of the Third Report from the Committee of Public Accounts, Session 1960–61, where, however, they were transposed. The correct figures are given in the Post Office paper at Appendix 7 to the Report.The result of the tendering has been that orders for telephone apparatus to a value of about £450,000 have been placed with firms outside the Bulk Supply Agreement. As regards exchange equipment, tenders were received for only a limited number of the items and were declined since the prices were sub-
Telephone Area | Order List | ||||
30th June, 1961 | 31st July, 1961 | 31st August, 1961 | 30th September, 1961 | ||
Aberdeen | … | 1,354 | 1,328 | 1,176 | 1,081 |
Bedford | … | 2,971 | 2,908 | 2,869 | 2,574 |
Belfast | … | 3,022 | 2,986 | 2,785 | 2,654 |
Birmingham | … | 8,546 | 8,690 | 8,488 | 8,293 |
Blackburn | … | 2,300 | 2,199 | 2,088 | 2,093 |
Bournemouth | … | 1,710 | 1,591 | 1,495 | 1,460 |
Bradford | … | 2,234 | 2,161 | 2,017 | 1,845 |
Brighton | … | 4,132 | 3,804 | 3,667 | 3,412 |
Bristol | … | 2,185 | 2,149 | 2,037 | 1,887 |
Cambridge | … | 2,309 | 2,292 | 2,082 | 2,052 |
Canterbury | … | 2,668 | 2,571 | 2,442 | 2,472 |
Cardiff | … | 3,887 | 3,776 | 3,719 | 3,591 |
Chester | … | 2,031 | 1,929 | 1,897 | 1,804 |
Colchester | … | 1,348 | 1,241 | 1,178 | 1,150 |
Coventry | … | 4,833 | 4,834 | 4,735 | 4,696 |
Dundee | … | 585 | 611 | 500 | 507 |
Edinburgh | … | 1,124 | 1,133 | 934 | 962 |
Exeter | … | 928 | 903 | 857 | 790 |
Glasgow | … | 4,515 | 4,317 | 3,970 | 3,855 |
Gloucester | … | 1,353 | 1,385 | 1,412 | 1,187 |
Guildford | … | 2,961 | 2,945 | 2,911 | 2,770 |
Lancaster | … | 1,541 | 1,536 | 1,441 | 1,398 |
Leeds | … | 3,162 | 2,957 | 2,803 | 2,688 |
Leicester | … | 2,013 | 1,753 | 1,689 | 1,643 |
Lincoln | … | 2,372 | 2,264 | 2,220 | 2,195 |
Liverpool | … | 3,624 | 3,592 | 3,408 | 3,355 |
London/Centre | … | 5,834 | 5,897 | 6,240 | 6,536 |
London/City | … | 4,897 | 4,842 | 4,396 | 4,711 |
London/East | … | 5,156 | 4,478 | 3,444 | 2,942 |
London/North | … | 5,814 | 5,566 | 4,898 | 4,165 |
stantially higher than for the same items provided under the Agreement. Further tenders are being invited.