§ Mr. J. H. Osbornasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made in remedying the difficulties in Sheffield on the boundary between the private steel sector and the British Steel Corporation, resulting from nationalisation, to which he referred in his statement on 27th April, 1971.
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§ Mr. Tom Boardman:I understand that the British Steel Corporation and Thos. Firth & John Brown Limited have now signed a final agreement, the terms of which are being announced today. This completes the transaction referred to by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State in his statement of 28th June last, and represents a welcome step in removing some of the anomalies in the boundary between the public and private sectors of the industry created by steel nationalisation. The proposals were examined in the usual way in the context of the Monopolies and Mergers Act, 1965, but reference to the Monopolies Commission was not considered to be necessary.—[Vol. 820, c. 33–40.]