§ Q3. Mr. John Fraserasked the Prime Minister if he will appoint a Minister with the sole responsibility for policy in relation to competition.
§ The Prime MinisterResponsibility now rests with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.
§ Mr. FraserWill the Prime Minister get his right hon. Friend to study the report of the Prices and Incomes Board on tea prices? That shows that shopping around does not keep prices down and that market leaders tend to drag them up? May I tell him that I have taken the advice of his right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture and I have done some shopping around and found that in three leading supermarkets tea prices are exactly the same? Housewives who take his advice and that of his right hon. Friend will be wasting their time if they are trying to keep prices down.
§ The Prime MinisterOf course my right hon. Friend will study that report; I do not doubt that he has already done so. But that in no way invalidates the general principle—it may considerably strengthen it—of emphasising the importance of proper competition under the Acts already on the Statute Book.