Vol. 550 No. 1
29 Mr. B. Hayes asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he has considered extending the NCT testing service to local garages throughout the country in a manner similar to that which prevails in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1213/02]
The National Car Testing Service has been engaged on a sole contractor basis to provide and operate an integrated national network of dedicated test centres. This method of procuring the new service was decided by the Government in 1996 from a range of options, among which could have been the operation of the service through local garages, as in the U.K. Since the present contract excludes, for its duration, the deployment of other procurement arrangements for roadworthiness testing of cars, there is no proposal to develop such arrangements.
