§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to his answer of 24 March 2000,Official Report, column 781W, on the super jumbo aircraft, if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's independent assessment of the likely demand for the A3XX. [116950]
§ Mr. Alan JohnsonNo, because this assessment contains commercially confidential and market-sensitive information. It was prepared following discussions with manufacturers, suppliers and airlines of commercially sensitive issues, which were of considerable assistance278W to my Department in drawing up the assessment. If such information were circulated more widely, the understanding on which it had been obtained would be breached, and in future my Department would be less able to serve the interests of taxpayers, since they would not be able to gain access to such a wide range of informed opinion when preparing market assessments.