§ Mr. Blackburnasked the Secretary of State for Industry how many prosecutions have been brought for non-compliance with the Telecommunications Apparatus (Marking and Labelling) Order 1982; and how many warnings have been given for non-compliance.
§ Mr. ButcherNo prosecutions have been brought by the Department of Industry for non-compliance with the Telecommunication Apparatus (Marking and Labelling) Order 1982, nor am I aware of prosecutions brought by others. It is open to anyone to take such action if they see fit. Enforcement of the above order, and of the parallel order relating to advertisements, is primarily in the hands of local authority trading standards officers who have the relevant power under section 19 of the British Telecommunications Act 1981, and the Department is aware that they have been following up complaints about infringements reported to them.
I am urgently considering what further action should be taken. The main focus initially will be to increase consumer awareness of the significance of the marks by appropriate publicity but I am not ruling out the bringing 10W of prosecutions by the Department of Industry where I am convinced that such action might prove to be effective in ensuring more widespread compliance with the orders. To date, the Department has written to ten retailers and five publishers of magazines or journals, where apparent contraventions of the Orders had been brought to its attention, in order to remind them about their legal obligations.