§ 4. Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection how many price control orders he has issued during the current parliamentary Session.
§ Mr. SkinnerDoes the Secretary of State agree that if he wants to retain any credibility in getting down prices he must take action over a long period of time? Does he appreciate that to achieve that aim it will be necessary to ensure that prices are controlled, perhaps even by the use of sanctions, which unfortunately have been used by the Government against firms which pay over the 10 per cent. limit on wages? It is in that direction that he will have to look to keep prices down, especially where firms are not paying corporation tax and where there is very little dividend control. It is time the Minister looked to hammering the friends of—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Gentleman is answering his Question as well.
§ Mr. HattersleyI have always told the House, and I must repeat, that the way of getting inflation down and keeping it under control is by applying those general economic policies that have that effect. We have applied them over the past two years and I hope that we shall go on doing the same in the foreseeable future. However, my hon. Friend is right to say 5 that we need an active Price Commission acting against unreasonable price increases—that is what has happened in the past year—and if its powers are to be changed they should be made stronger rather than weakened in any way.
§ Mr. AdleyThe right hon. Gentleman said that the Government have applied these policies for the past two years. What were they doing for the first two years?
§ Mr. HattersleyAs subsequent answers will show, in the first two years we were wrestling with the inflation caused by the Conservatives when they were in power.
§ Mr. MaddenCan my right hon. Friend tell us how many prices have been frozen by the Price Commission? How does he describe the support given by the Tory Opposition for price control legislation—enthusiastic, grudging or non-existent?
§ Mr. HattersleyA number of prices have been directly frozen by the Commission. As I said in my original reply, seven orders have been made. Much more significant is the indirect effect of the Commission's operations because companies have been deterred from even proposing frivolous or unnecessary price increases by the existence of the Commission. This point was made by the hon. Member for Gloucester (Mrs. Oppenheim) during a speech in her constituency when she said that the Price Commission was holding down prices and inhibiting profits. She was not in favour of that, but she acknowledged that it was happening.