§ Dr. Hampsonasked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will make a statement on the textile import surveillance scheme; and if he is satisfied with the adequacy of the information flowing from it.
§ Mr. MeacherThe arrangements provide us with a considerable amount of data about textile imports which was not previously available. Unfortunately, it has not so far been possible to produce detailed summaries of licences issued in respect of clothing and made-ups similar to those already produced for yarns and fabrics. I am therefore not yet satisfied. Nevertheless, the data can be and has been used to examine the position on imports of particularly sensitive items which is one of the main purposes of the arrangements.
§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for Trade how many import licences for the import of all categories of textiles have been issued to the latest available date; and to how many applicants.
§ Mr. MeacherFrom 1st January to 11th June 1976, 83,176 licences were issued. The number of applicants is not recorded; this information is not readily available and the cost of producing it would be disproportionate.
§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for Trade what delays have been experienced in the processing of import licences for textiles in all categories since the establishment of the import surveillance scheme by his Department; what is the average backlog in processing such data; and what is the present blacklog.
§ Mr. MeacherThe average time from receipt of a properly completed application to the dispatch of a licence is three days and, except in the few weeks immediately following the introduction of the arrangements, this has been main-124W tained. Serious problems have been encountered in producing aggregated figures of some of the imports covered by these licences, but it is expected that these problems will be overcome in the near future.