§ Mr. Gryllsasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the Office of Fair Trading's plans to set up an inquiry into discriminatory discounts for retailers.
§ Mr. FletcherThe Director General of Fair Trading has a general duty under section 2 of the Fair Trading Act 1973 to keep commercial activities in the UK under review. In fulfilling this duty, since publication of the MMC report on "Discounts to Retailers", he has held discussions with representatives of all sections of the distributive trades. He is also currently considering undertaking a fact-finding exercise to up-date some of the information in the MMC report. The purpose of these activities is to help him assess whether circumstances in the distributive trades have changed sufficiently since publication of the MMC report to justify more formal inquiries under the competition legislation.