§ Mr. Joplingasked the Minister of Transport if he will publish in the Official Report such information about the acquisitions which have been made by the Transport Holding Company in each of the last three 12-month periods to the latest convenient date, about the degree of control held in these companies, about how many vehicles were involved in each case, and about the cost of acquisition in each case, as has already been made public.
§ Mr. Tom FraserI am informed by the Transport Holding Company that they have supplied information from time to time about the acquisitions by them of road haulage undertakings as shown in the table below. They do not normally provide information about the price paid for individual undertakings but, as I66W stated in the House during the debate on transport on 16th November, they have made acquisitions of private enterprise companies to the value of about £8 million. Following is the table:
Undertaking Number of vehicles Degree of control Per cent. 1963 None 1964 Westfield Transport Ltd. 21 100 Furness & Parker Ltd 44 100 Griff Fender (Swansea) Ltd 30 100 1965 (to date) Ives & Smith Ltd 20 100 Suffolk Plant Hire Co. Ltd. James Express Carriers Ltd 90 100 Gavin Wilkie Ltd 20 100 George Read (Transport) Ltd 50 100 *Harold Wood & Sons Ltd 500 100 Corringdon Ltd. 70 100 *Tayforth Ltd Not published 75 William Cooper & Sons (Carriers) Ltd. 21 100 J. E. Cartwright (Haulage) Ltd 50 100 *Notes: 1. In the case of Harold Wood & Sons Ltd. it was announced that the cost of purchasing the share capital and discharging certain liabilities was approximately £1.7 million. 2. In the case of Tayforth Ltd. it has been announced that the cost to the Transport Holding Company of acquiring a 75 per cent. interest was about £5 million.