§ 11.43 p.m.
§ The President of the Board of Trade (Mr. Harold Wilson)I beg to move,
That the Draft Census of Distribution (1951) (Restriction on Disclosure) Order, 1950, a copy of which was laid before this House on 28th June, be approved.This Order is extremely limited in scope and does not raise all the general questions about the Census of Distribution. Under the Statistics of Trade Act, there were provisions to prevent the disclosure of individual particulars furnished by individual undertakings, and powers were given to the President of the Board of Trade to extend the control over disclosure. This Order provides that there shall be no disclosure of information sent in by individual undertakings, even to other Government Departments. It prohibits disclosure for any purpose except for the purposes of the Census. Assurances have been given in the House and to the principal trade associations that an Order would be made providing for very special treatment of the information supplied under the Census of Distribution, and I hope that this Order will give the necessary reassurance to those shopkeepers and others who are worried as to the confidential nature of the returns they fill in.
§ Question put, and agreed to.