§ Mr. Lilleyasked the Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development what percentage of goods sold by retail is subject to resale price maintenance ; and what percentage of such sales is of goods in respect of which the Monopolies Commission has found that the arrangements in the industry concerned are not contrary to the public interest.
§ Mr. Heath: About 40 per cent. of consumer expenditure on goods is on price-maintained goods. In their investigations the Monopolies Commission have had no occasion to consider whether the practice of resale price maintenance as such in the industry concerned was contrary to the public interest. Their inquiries into this practice have been confined to the question of possible abuses of a monopoly situation. They have been conducted against the background that the practice itself was not contrary to the law and that legislation had specifically provided an additional means of legal enforcement. The second part of the Question does not therefore arise.