HC Deb 25 April 1961 vol 639 cc211-3
12. Mrs. Slater

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware of the continued identical tendering of firms to local authorities for lamps; and what evidence he has received of monopoly conditions in the lamp manufacturing industry in the course of considering further references to the Monopolies Commission.

Mr. N. Macpherson

The prices indicated in the schedules of tenders for electric lamps sent to my right hon. Friend by the hon. Member are by no means all identical. Since the Monopolies Commission reported in 1951, the Board of Trade have received very few complaints about the supply and prices of electric lamps.

The information which the hon. Member has sent gives my right hon. Friend no reason to think that in this industry the conditions to which the Act of 1948 applies prevail, but he will be glad to consider any further evidence which the hon. Member may wish to bring to his notice on this point.

Mrs. Slater

Does not the hon. Gentleman agree that in the list submitted to him by the Stoke-on-Trent Council there was identical tendering except in two cases? Is not that sort of thing happening time and time again, resulting in the expenditure of large sums of money by a public authority which is endeavouring to light its streets properly? Has not the time come for a review of this matter?

Mr. Macpherson

In the list that I saw there were at least two firms which were prepared to offer electric lamps below the general level of prices, and one was offering them at above that level. In one case, a firm was offering some above and some below.

As I have said, if the hon. Lady has any evidence of the existence of an agreement, it ought to be brought to the attention of the Registrar of Restrictive Trading Agreements.

Mr. Jay

As my hon. Friend has already brought this information to the attention of the hon. Gentleman, is it not his duty to pass it on to the Registrar?

Mr. Macpherson

That is what I am suggesting to the hon. Lady—that she should pass it on, because it is open to anybody to do so. We have no evidence whatever of the existence of any such agreement. If anyone has any evidence, it is up to him to pass it on to the Registrar.

Mr. Jay

If it is open to anybody to do so, and the Parliamentary Secretary has had the information from my hon. Friend and the local authority, is there not a duty on him to make it available to the Registrar?

Mr. Macpherson

No, Sir, because, as I have said, there is no indication, from the evidence submitted, that there is any such agreement.