§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, in relation to the 39 trade associations and federations to which he gave permission to raise their prices by amounts varying from 3 per cent. to 100 per cent. of raw material price increases, what are the number of firms and companies which these associations represented which will 466W be able to increase prices or have done so under this arrangement.
§ Sir G. HoweThe information required is not readily available. I should make clear that I have not given permission to the trade associations and firms named in my reply to the hon. Member of 22nd February to raise prices by amounts varying from 3 per cent. to 100 per cent. of their increased raw materials costs. What I have done is to insist that they absorb a proportion of the increases. The figures given in my answer represent the minimum percentage of those increases which they must absorb.—[Vol. 851, c. 164.]