§ Mr. Fordasked the First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, to what extent he intends to exempt individual manufacturers of goods listed in the Appendix to Command Paper No. 2808 from giving early warning of price increases in relatively minor cases.
§ Mr. George BrownAs indicated in paragraph 6 of Command Paper 2808 I am anxious to ensure that the arrangements for "early warning" do not create an excessive burden of additional work in relation to the objectives of the system. With this in mind I would not necessarily regard it as essential for notifications of price increases to be made by manufacturers whose business (for example, as measured by turnover) is quite small in relation to that of the industry or trade concerned as a whole. I am not, however, in favour of exempting proposed price increases from these arrangements on the grounds that they fall below a certain percentage level. This might create the erroneous impression that a small price increase is necessarily free from objection. The considerations set out in Command Paper 2639 show clearly that this is not so.