§ Mr. Frank Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 18 June, Official Report, column 569, if he will state exactly what constituted the misquote in the European Economic Community code of conduct of European firms operating in South Africa; if he will further state if this misquote resulted from a mistranslation; whether the European Economic Community Foreign Ministers themselves misquoted the previous code; on what date he first realised there was a misquote; which departments have issued the document with the misquote; what steps are being taken to trace these documents; whether any incorrect codes have been issued to companies trading in South Africa; and if the misquote is being issued in documents by our European Economic Community partners.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe text of the new code of conduct issued by Ministers in Brussels on 19 November 1985 was issued as a press release by the Presidency. Unfortunately, in the footnote to the section on pay and wage structures the press release misquoted the 1977 code. The error was discovered soon afterwards and has been corrected. The new code will be published as a White Paper in due course.