§ 8. Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Trade whether he has received 876 the report of the special investigation by his Department into the collapse of the London and Counties Securities Group Ltd. of November 1973.
§ Mr. Clinton DavisThe inspectors are making good progress with their inquiries and we hope to receive their report early next year.
§ Mr. SkinnerIs my hon. Friend aware that it is being shown daily that the scale of this collapse has had a domino effect throughout the whole of the banking system? Does he realise that the UDS set aside £5 million as a rescue loan and has now had to write it off, and that Keyser Ullman and First National Finance Corporation are now lingering at the bottom partly as a result of this rescue operation? Does he agree that those cardboard directors, such as the Leader of the Liberal Party, who got involved in these squalid operations should be made to foot the bill?
§ Mr. DavisOf course I am concerned about the collapse of this or any other company, with its effects on the rest of the finance world. It would be quite wrong of me, however, in any sense to prejudge the result of the very complex investigation that is being undertaken. It would not be right for me to cast aspersions on any of the directors at this stage. We shall review the evidence when it is available.