§ 25. Mr. Colvinasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has yet completed his consideration of the working party's report on free ports.
§ Mr. Bruce-GardyneI refer my hon. Friend to my right hon. and learned Friend's Budget Speech—[Vol. 39, c. 153–541—in which he announced that the Government intended to take powers to enable the setting up of a limited number of experimental free ports. The Government are currently preparing criteria by which applicants for free port designation under the experimental scheme will be judged. These criteria will be announced shortly for the guidance of potential operators. In order to ensure that all bids are dealt with on the same basis, applications made prior to this announcement will not be considered, and should, where appropriate, be resubmitted in the light of the criteria.