§ 29. Mr. Oramasked the President of the Board of Trade how many suggestions for references to the Monopolies Commission have been noted in the annual reports on the work of the Commission; how many have been referred; what estimate 170W he makes of the time which would be needed by the Commission to investigate all the suggestions on the basis of the past rate of progress; and if, in future annual reports, in addition to recording a list of the subjects suggested to him, he will also give reasons for not referring those subjects to the Commission.
Mr. EnrollA total of 196 suggestions have been noted since 1948 of which 80 appear to be within the present purview of the Monopolies Commission. After consideration of the merits of these suggestions from the point of view of the public interest, references have been made in 31 cases, including 23 which would now be outside the Commission's scope. The remainder vary considerably in complexity and I am not prepared to make an estimate of the kind asked for in the third part of the question. I doubt if the suggestion made in the last part of the Question would be practicable, but I am reviewing the form of this part of the Annual Report and will bear the hon. Member's proposal in mind.