§ 44. Mr. Dodds-Parkerasked the President of the Board of Trade what is the cost of finding out details of stocks held 93W in industry; how much time will elapse before these details can be compiled and evaluated; and what percentage of industry he expects to cover.
§ Mr. DarlingThe cost to the Board of Trade of its quarterly inquiries into the value of stocks held by industry is about £90,000 a year. Results are published about 10 weeks after the end of each quarter. These cover, on a sampling basis, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, and account for about 75 per cent. of the stocks of the country. In addition, statistics of other stocks, together with information about individual commodities, are collected by the Government and by industry and published with varying time lags. It would be difficult to make a satisfactory estimate of the cost of these other stock statistics.