§ Mr. Loveridgeasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list and publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the ways the White Paper on phase 2 differs from the Price and Pay Code Consultative Document Command Paper No. 5247.
§ Mr. NottApart from changes designed to increase clarity, such as the explanations of methods for calculating permitted price and pay increases, and to secure greater consistency of treatment, such as the extension of the list of allowable costs to include bought-in services and of the list of exclusions from control to include prices determined on commodity markets, 113W the substantive differences between Cmnd. 5247 and Cmnd. 5267 are as follows:
- (i) The requirement to reduce prices where factors such as an increase in turnover lead to lower unit costs has been omitted, though reductions are still required in other circumstances.
- (ii) the 50 per cent. productivity deduction has been modified for the benefit of labour-intensive enterprises.
- (iii) Provision has been made for prices to be raised in anticipation of known future cost increases to an extent which reflects an appropriate average of present and anticipated costs, in certain well-defined circumstances.
- (iv) The circumstances in which the Price Commission may recognise the special needs of investment have been extended.
- (v) Provision has been included for the nationalised industries to increase prices to avoid increases in their deficits.
- (vi) A number of changes have been made on dates and periods and the unit for computation of margins and for notification and reporting of price and pay increases.
- (vii) The definition of personal increments which do not count against the pay limit or the limit of £250 a year for the individual has been tightened.
- Some of these changes are to safeguard investment, and others to recognise the needs of particular sectors and certain practical difficulties. None of them impair the main features of the controls originally proposed in Cmnd. 5247.