§ Sir Geoffrey FinsbergTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the United Kingdom's record with regard to implementation of the Single European Act; what is the position in the other member states; and what assessment he has made of the accuracy of Commission statistics.
§ Mr. RedwoodA recent Commission report dated 7 September on progress in implementing EC directives on the single market into national laws confirms that the United Kingdom's record is excellent. On the Commission's reckoning, France is the best performer, followed by the United Kingdom. Our own records show the United Kingdom performance to be even better than the Commission suggests. It says that we are behind on 11 measures—we think the figure should be only three. This means we have implemented 65 out of 68 measures as appropriate in United Kingdom law. We have passed the relevant information to the Commission. Our calculations put United Kingdom performance roughly comparable with Denmark and the Netherlands, who also claim that the Commission have underestimated their tally. I intend372W to continue drawing attention to the importance of full implementation in all my contacts with the Commission and my counterparts in other member states.