HC Deb 12 February 1969 vol 777 cc1308-9
24. Mr. Emery

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he intends to publish a White Paper on Government policy on monopolies and mergers.

2. Mr. Sheldon

asked the President of the Board of Trade what proposals he now has to take steps to alter the powers and the composition of the Monopolies Commission.

Mr. Crosland

As I told the House in November, I am reviewing the working of the Monopolies Commission. Meanwhile I have decided to take administrative steps to strengthen both the membership and the staff of the Commission, and to improve the arrangements for deciding on references to it. I shall consider whether to make a further statement when the review is complete.—[Vol. 772, c. 88.]

Mr. Emery

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that his Answer is quite unsatisfactory? Hon. Members and the Press realise that a draft paper, an interdepartmental inquiry, has been in existence in his Department for a number of month;;? Is it not right that the House should have sight of that document, even if it is only placed in the Library if he will not publish it? We should like to know not only the Department's views but the right hon. Gentleman's views on strengthening the Monopolies Commission.

Mr. Crosland

I have already given my views on the strengthening of the Monopolies Commission at this stage in the review which we are undertaking. As to draft documents circulating in the Board of Trade or elsewhere, if we were to publish them, or put them all in the Library—every draft document circulating in Whitehall—the hon. Member would have no time for anything but reading.

Sir K. Joseph

Do not the Government need to make up their own mind on these importait matters and to publish their views? Why was the Minister, if he was to refer Unilever and Allied Breweries to the Monopolies Commission, so indecisive as to wait eight weeks before doing so?

Mr. Crosland

On the first point, I entirely agree that the Government and the Opposition and each one of us must make up our minds on what is an extraordinarily intricate subject. The right hon. Gentleman will have heard me express my view briefly at a dinner at the Leeds Chamber of Commerce, which he was good enough to attend, only two weeks ago. As to Unilever and Allied Breweries, this was the first reference made to the Commission under the size criterion of the 1965 Act. In terms of size it was also by far the largest reference ever made to the Commission. I thought that this raised a number of exceptionally serious problems which I was determined to take time to consider before giving a view one way or the other.