§ Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will seek to amend the law in order to make it a criminal offence not to register a price ring with the Office of Fair Trading and to operate a price ring against the public interest, in the light of the practices of certain firms in the Manchester area, details of which have been sent to him.
§ Mr. John FraserI have been asked to reply.
The restrictive trade practices legislation already provides for the Restrictive Practices Court to make orders restraining firms from entering into or giving effect to restrictive agreements. Breach of these orders is subject to penal proceedings for contempt of court and punishable by a fine or imprisonment. 85W Neither I nor the Director General of Fair Trading is convinced that making failure to register restrictive agreements a criminal offence would improve the enforcement of the legislation. But I believe that there is a need to strengthen the Director General's powers to uncover unregistered agreements, and I shall be seeking to do this at the earliest opportunity.