In brief: Jones sets CCT date forward six months

Compulsory competitive tendering will be brought forward by six months in authorities not undergoing reorganisation, putting legal services on the market by 1 October 1997. Environment Minister Robert Jones says his department sent a consultation paper to English local authorities which proposed bringing forward the implementation of CCT by up to one year from the initial timetable. "I have considered carefully the associations' clear and cogent arguments for not imposing a timetable which may give rise to undue haste in implementing CCT, and decided to strike a balance between the concerns they have expressed and the need to maintain a rigorous timetable."