§ Mr. Staintonasked the Secretary of State for Trade what are the statutory authority and the reasons for requiring that the Patent Office shall operate as regard fees under constraints similar to those applied to nationalised industries under paragraph 98 of the Price Code.
§ Mr. Clinton DavisThe Crown is not bound by the Counter-Inflation Act 1973 but the rules laid down in the Price Code were applied to the Patent Office, which is a large fee-earning organisation.
§ Mr. Staintonasked the Secretary of State for Trade (1) at what annual rate of deficit the fee-bearing services of the Patent Office are currently running; and what is his estimate of the annual rate of surplus at which those services will be running, assuming constant rates of business, when present fee increase proposals are fully effective;
(2) when he expects the monthly cost of the fee-bearing services of the Patent Office to come into balance with the monthly receipts of the fees payable for 110W those services, as currently proposed to be increased; and what monthly rate of surplus he expects will prevail subsequently thereto;
(3) what proposals he has for countermanding wholly or in part present proposals for Patent Office fee increases when the currently recoverable deficit on the fee-bearing services of the Patent Office has been recouped;
(4) what are his estimates of the rates of reduction in the completion of patent applications in the granting of patents, and in the annual renewal of granted patents which will flow from his present proposals for a 90 per cent. increase in Patent Office fees.
§ Mr. ShoreThe current annual rate of deficit is approximately £5 million. Assuming a constant rate of business the 90 per cent. increase in fees would result in a surplus of £1 million in a full year. However, the full monthly yield will not be achieved until June and the increase will be operative for only 10 months of the current financial year.
Moreover, experience indicates that some fall in business is inevitable. There are no adequate data on which to base a firm estimate, but we calculate that if business were to fall by 10 per cent. there would be a deficit for the financial year of £1.5 million.
I therefore have no proposals for countermanding wholly or in part the increased fees; the position will be kept under review should the recoverable deficit be recouped.
§ Mr. Staintonasked the Secretary of State for Trade what are the principal factors to which he attributes his estimate of a trebling in the deficit of the Patent Office on its fee-bearing services in the financial year 1974–75 over the calendar year 1973 and the latest year for which final figures are available.
§ Mr. ShoreCosts increased generally between calendar year 1973 and financial year 1974–75 the main components being salaries up by 35 per cent. and accommodation up by 24 per cent. Income rose by only 5 per cent.
The figures for 1974 will be published in the Comptroller-General's report to Parliament at the end of May 1975.