HC Deb 22 January 1970 vol 794 cc685-7
30. Mr. Biffen

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity when she will introduce further legislation on prices and incomes to replace or supplement Part II of the 1966 Prices and Incomes Act.

40. Mr. Alexander W. Lyon

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity whether she will now make a statement on her proposals for legislation to establish the Commission for Industry and Manpower.

The Minister of State, Department of Employment and Productivity (Mr. Edmund Dell)

I have today placed in the Vote Office copies of a consultative document setting out the Government's proposals for legislation to establish the Commission for Industry and Manpower. It is proposed to discuss these proposals with the principal industrial organisations. The legislation will be introduced as soon as possible.

Mr. Speaker

Order. It helps the Chair if the groupings are known.

Mr. Biffen

Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether, in the framing of these proposals, he was influenced at all by the decision of the T.U.C. not to continue with the vetting committee to watch trends, and whether he knew these circumstances existed, in which a voluntary incomes policy cannot in any meaningful sense be said to exist?

Mr. Dell

As the hon. Gentleman will see when he reads it, the consultative document develops a voluntary policy for prices and incomes. It takes account of the current circumstances. None of the circumstances to which the hon. Gentleman refers undermines the Government's intention to pursue a voluntary policy on incomes.

Mr. Alexander W. Lyon

What powers do the proposals suggest this Commission should have to enforce any of its recommendations? Or is it simply to be another "three wise men"?

Mr. Dell

There will be power in the Government to enforce the recommendations of the Commission in cases where the Commission finds there to be action by a company against the public interest. There will be power to regulate prices where the Commission finds there to be non-competitive conditions.

Mr. Carr

Will the right hon. Gentleman tell the House something about the status of this consultative document? We know what White Papers are. We have become accustomed to understanding what Green Papers are. Now there is this consultative document. To what extent is this a commitment of Government policy to the contents of the document?

Mr. Dell

The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that the Department of Employment and Productivity issues many consultative documents in respect of the legislation which it intends to introduce. This is such a consultative document and we intend to discuss with industrial organisations their views on it. It nevertheless clearly contains Government philosophy on prices and incomes policy, and on competition policy.