§ 2.52 p.m.
§ Lord BARNBYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they propose to take with regard to the practice of reductions in price printed on the containers of consumer goods without the consumer being able to learn from what base price the reduction should be calculated.
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, the promotion of sales by deceptive or misleading claims about the price of goods is an abuse which must be eliminated. The Director-General of Fair Trading has made detailed and important proposals on bargain and flash offers which have required careful study. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection will announce shortly the action which he proposes to take.
§ Lord BARNBYMy Lords, is the noble Lord aware that this is a matter which I am assured causes widespread confusion throughout the country? Is he further aware that it has been the subject over the past 18 months of considerable correspondence between myself and the Minister concerned? This subject has caused me a great deal of annoyance when going into shops, and I understand that I am not alone in that experience. Is the noble Lord aware that in the course of the correspondence it has been explained that there would be advantage in the abolition of the practice, that a Committee has been appointed and, as I understand the noble Lord, that Committee has recommended that the practice should be abolished? I do not know whether the noble Lord is able to say anything more definite about the date. However, with the indulgence of the House I should like to add that there is the widespread impression that this is a fraud on the public because these reductions are ineradicably printed on metal containers. Therefore, if anybody goes into a shop and asks for the reduction which is stated on the container the retailer says, "Oh, no". Finally, does he know that the best expression and explanation I have had from the correspondence is that the price indicated is that for which the same article has been offered for sale in the same shop over the previous six months?
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, the noble Lord is, in fact, expressing widely felt irritation as regards this type of promotion. That irritation is shared, as I have said, by the Government. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State will shortly announce the action —I stress "action"—which he proposes to take.
The two sets of recommendations on bargain offers published in February this year by the Director-General of Fair Trading called for a ban on misleading bargain offers, including those concerning worth and value, and price elsewhere, as well as money-off claims; similarly, all reductions from the manufacturers' recommended prices. That is the area which is under consideration.
§ Lord MERRIVALEMy Lords, is there any reason why powers cannot be taken by Her Majesty's Government for the recommended price to be inscribed on some of the goods which are available in the shops which we use? Is the noble Lord aware that, in effect, one sees a number of prices which are marked 6p, 9p, 5p "off the recommended price", but one never knows what is the recommended price? Could not one know the recommended price, and should not that be marked on the container?
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, that is the sort of problem we are trying to overcome.
§ Lord SEGALMy Lords, can my noble friend say whether any statutory body will be armed with compulsory powers so that this abuse will be done away with as quickly as possible?
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, I presume that my right honourable friend would not make proposals unless he had ways of carrying them out.
§ Lord BLYTONMy Lords, will the noble Lord say how we can get over the question of prescribed prices when recently four firms have amalgamated to milk the Post Office of £9 million, and of the chairmen of those firms three were noble Lords of this House sitting on the Conservative Benches?
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, that is not retail trade.
§ Lord LEATHERLANDMy Lords, would my noble friend agree that women shoppers are not quite so naïve as noble Lords have suggested? Would he not agree that they look not so much at the 3p off as at the actual price which is being charged? For example, when I was shopping with my wife the other week we saw something marked 19p, and my wife said, "We can buy it at Sainsbury's for 17p". It is the actual price at which they look.
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, the noble Lord is a better husband than I am! However, I understand that some ladies, who have time, make such comparisons.
§ Lord MERRIVALEMy Lords, following upon what the noble Lord said, does not the Minister agree that there are differences in reductions of perhaps 6p, 5p, 9p and so on, but the price one pays is the same, and that is why the housewife would like to know the recommended price?