HC Deb 13 June 1956 vol 554 cc708-9
Mr. P. Thorneycroft

I beg to move, in page 14, line 12, at the end to insert: (b) for excluding from the particulars to be furnished or entered in the register under this Part of this Act such details as persons, prices, terms or other matters as are material for the purpose only of defining the particular application from time to time of continuing restrictions accepted under agreements of which particulars are so entered. The effect of these words is to enable the Registrar to make regulations, which will be subject to the negative Order procedure, to enable him to exclude from the register detailed particulars defining the application from time to time of continuing restrictions under agreements already registered.

This is another of the devices—I make no apology for introducing quite a number of them—to protect the Registrar against unnecessary information. We might well have a situation in which there was an agreement for common prices and suppose, for the sake of argument, the prices were altered every Thursday

morning, it would be really intolerable if all those price alterations had to pour into the Registry all through the week—minor adjustments or recordings of incidents in a common price agreement.

It is not easy to define in the Bill the dividing line between what is an incidental application of the agreement and the agreement itself. I think the House would be wise, keeping the matter within its own control under the negative Order procedure, to have some flexibility in this matter. If the Registrar finds that there is to be a flood of these things coming in on a particular agreement he can make arrangements to cut them out because we do not want them. We want him to concentrate on what really matters.

Amendment agreed to.