§ Mr. Gardnerasked the President of the Board of Trade if he has now completed his reconsideration of his Department's policy of not revealing the number of industrial development certificate applications refused in congested areas; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. CroslandYes. I have now decided to publish annually statistics of applications for industrial development certificates which have been refused. The first figures will be available in the Annual Report by the Board of Trade under the Local Employment Acts for the year ended 31st March, 1968, which will be published in the near future. They will give the numbers and area in square feet of applications refused in each standard Region for the year 1967-68. I am also arranging for an article to be published shortly in theBoard of Trade Journal giving further information about this new statistical series. I must, however, emphasise that for reasons that will be explained in the article to which I have referred, figures of i.d.c. refusals can be very misleading and must be interpreted with caution. In particular they are not a precise measure of the way the i.d.c. policy is being administered in particular areas.