Clause 10 (Hansard, 27 June 1968)

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Sydney Irving)
The next Amendment is Amendment No. 10, with which it may be convenient to take Government Amendments Nos. 11 and 12.

§ Mr. Dell
That would certainly be for my convenience, Mr. Deputy Speaker, if it is also for the convenience of the Opposition.

§ Mr. Dell
I beg to move Amendment No. 10, in page 4, line 25 after ' quality', insert 'or arrangements as to the provision of information or advice to purchasers, consumers or users'. My attention has been drawn to the existence of a number of arrangements, bearing a close relationship to standards of dimension, design or quality, intended to ensure that when certain goods are supplied to the public, information about their composition or quality or instructions about their use are provided, for example, on the label. Such arrangements might, for example, cover advice about safety precautions.
I am advised that agreements to implement such arrangements or trade association recommendations about their implementation may be registrable because 931 they can be construed as involving a restriction on the supply of goods in question unless the prescribed information or advice is provided.
I am sure that hon. Members will agree that we should encourage the provision of the fullest possible information to the consumer about the goods he is using. As I have said, these arrangements are akin to standards, and we think it appropriate that they should be dealt with in a similar way.
The Amendments, therefore, widen the Clause so as to afford an exemption in relation to terms of agreements concerned with implementing approved arrangements as to the provision of information or advice to purchasers, users or consumers.

§ Mr. Tom Boardman (Leicester, South-West)
The Amendment is similar to a point discussed in Committee about bilateral arrangements. Whilst it goes some way to meet what we then discussed with regard to the supply of information to purchasers, it does not go as far as the Minister perhaps intended, because it does not extend to potential purchasers.
When we come to the question of information agreements, which, under the Bill, is to be covered by Section 7(3) of the 1956 Act, any arrangement for providing information to potential purchasers as to standards, design, quality or advice would be a registrable agreement provided the necessary order is made.
9.15 p.m.
I suggest that what the Minister might well have intended to do here was to ensure that arrangements by which one party agreed to supply information to another about specification, design, standard, quality, and so on, should have the same protection as where a contract of purchase is made. The Amendments fall short of what I understood the hon. Gentleman to say he hoped to achieve. There will be many cases where arrangements are made to provide information on safety precautions, for example, which will be equally applicable. The hon. Gentleman should look again at the wording and see whether it really fulfils the desire he shares to prevent agreements where information leading up to sale is exchanged possibly falling into the category of registerable agreements.