§ Ms. MowlamTo ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) whether he proposes to instruct the Monopolies and Mergers Commission to take public interest criteria into account in assessing potential takeovers;
(2) whether he proposes any amendment to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission's present approach to potential takeovers in which the implication for competition is the sole criterion taken into consideration.
§ Mr. Heseltine[holding answer 12 May 1992]: Section 84 of the Fair Trading Act 1973 requires the Monopolies and Mergers Commission to take into account all matters which appear to them in the particular circumstances to be relevant in determining whether a merger or proposed merger operates or may be expected to operate against the public interest. Competition is an important, but not the only, consideration in the Monopolies and Mergers Commission's assessment of mergers.
The 1988 White Paper "DTI—the Department for Enterprise" (Cm 278) stated that the Government's policy is that the main, though not exclusive, consideration in determining whether mergers should be referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission should be their potential effect on competition. This remains the position.