§ Mr. Biffenasked the First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs what categories of commercial information are made available to Economic Development Committees which are not made available to the Library of the House of Commons; and 118W by what authority are such categories of information collected from the business community; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Harold LeverThe Government seeks to make available to the Economic Development Committees such information collected from the business community as is necessary for their work and does not breach the confidence in which it is provided. They are not given information of this kind which could not be supplied to Parliament. The Economic Development Committees also request information on their own account from industry for particular needs, and this is given voluntarily.