§ Mr. Buckasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how the computerised Export Intelligence Service is developing; and whether he will review the subscription charges applying to members of the service who have specialised interests.
§ Mr. NobleThe Export Intelligence Service has made a successful start. It now has a membership of some 4,800, of whom 1,200 have enrolled since its start in June, 1970. It is now distributing export intelligence at an annual rate of 42,000 items. This is an increase of a third over the corresponding rate of a year ago.
Experience has shown that there is an anomaly in the treatment of subscribers 19W with specialised interests as opposed to those with wider interests. All subscribers have to pay a £25 deposit which is at present valid for only 12 months. This time limit affects those with specialised interests but not those with wider interests. This means that in practice the former are paying more than the latter. In order to remove this anomaly we have decided to abolish the current time limit on the £25 deposits. In future therefore the cost to all subscribers will be 1s. (5p) per item. This change will apply to existing subscribers to the Service as well as to new subscribers.