§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for Trade what is the cost so far to public funds of his Department's efforts to collect information about companies doing business with South Africa, as set out in his reply of 15 February to the hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Rodgers) and what information he has of the extra costs and the number of man hours required to be provided by the 173 companies from which he requested information about their activities in South Africa 373W under the terms of the White Paper, Cmnd, 7233.
§ Mr. John SmithThe cost of this operation to public funds is not readily ascertainable but monitoring on this scale clearly involved a considerable amount of work on the part of officials. I regard this as fully justified by the importance we attach to effective implementation of our policy in relation to the code of conduct. I recognise that companies also have incurred expense in preparing and publishing reports under the code and I am grateful for their co-operation. Their encouraging response to the request for published reports suggests that a majority see it as in their own interests to publicise their progress in improving conditions for black African employees in South Africa and to accept the costs entailed.